On Being a Physician-Author

By Ilana Yurkiewicz, MD

Ilana Yurkiewicz, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Primary Care and Population Health. Her new book, Fragmented: A Doctor’s Quest to Piece Together American Health Care, is now available in print and audiobook.

Before I became a doctor I was a science journalist, and I’ve spent the last 10+ years merging the two careers. I knew I wanted to go into medicine as early as college, but, at the same time, I cultivated an interest in science writing for public audiences. In retrospect, I believe it’s because the skills at play in the hospital room and on the page are actually quite similar: I enjoy taking complex information and breaking it down for everyday people to digest in meaningful and accessible ways.

My writing career began during my undergraduate days when I was Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Scientific Magazine. I then received the AAAS Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellowship, which allowed me to work as a science and health reporter for The News & Observer in North Carolina. Next, I became a blog columnist for Scientific American; I created my column “Unofficial Prognosis” during medical school to capture my experiences and reflections during my training. As a doctor I also created and wrote the “Hard Questions” column for Hematology News.

I developed my medical career in tandem. I completed my residency in internal medicine and fellowship in hematology and oncology at Stanford, and I stayed on as faculty in Primary Care and Population Health. My clinic has a unique focus in comprehensive primary care for patients living with cancer, those who have survived cancer, and those at high risk for malignancy due to genetic factors.

Along the way, I continued to do freelance journalism. I am especially passionate about writing long-form, in-depth medical explorations. My work has appeared in The Best American Science and Nature Writing, The Atlantic, Undark Magazine, Aeon Magazine, Health Affairs, The New England Journal of Medicine, STAT News, and elsewhere.

I published my first book, Fragmented: A Doctor’s Quest to Piece Together American Health Care, in July 2023. My book draws upon my work as a physician to make the case that fragmentation – or what I define as the insertion of gaps into a patient’s story by design – is the root cause of our health care system’s failings. My book combines narrative, research, and analysis to show how systematic communication breaks blindfold physicians and burden patients and families, and it lays out my vision for a better way.

I am often asked how I wrote a book while also working as a full-time physician, and I believe people deserve a better answer than my stock joke: “with great difficulty.” When something is important to me, I make time to do it. I didn’t seek out fragmentation in medicine – it was a reality thrust upon me as I hovered over fax machines and was forced to make life-and-death decisions with the absence of critical patient data. My intention as a physician-author is to use my insider position to educate the public with nuance and depth. I am grateful for my work as a doctor that lets me help people one-on-one and my writing career that allows me to reach many.

“…the skills at play in the hospital room and on the page are actually quite similar: I enjoy taking complex information and breaking it down for everyday people to digest in meaningful and accessible ways.”

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