Stories
Doctors, in their own words.
Clinicians, founders, researchers, doctors who moved abroad and doctors who changed course. Each story comes from real interviews, published with consent, in the words of the person who lived it.
In preparation
The first stories are being reported.
We would rather publish nothing than publish a profile we cannot stand behind. Each story takes several conversations, a portrait session and the subject’s approval of every quoted word, so they arrive slowly.
Who we talk to
Eleven ways a medical life can go
Most lives belong to more than one. The list will grow when a story fits none of them.
Clinicians
Doctors who stayed at the bedside and built a life they chose.
Entrepreneurs
Doctors who built businesses, clinics and services.
Researchers
Lives organised around a question.
Pharma and industry
Medical affairs, drug development and the industry side of medicine.
Technology
Doctors building and shaping health technology.
Moved abroad
Doctors who trained or settled in another country, and some who came back.
Founders
Doctors who started companies, with what it cost them.
Investors
Doctors who fund and back other people’s ideas.
Creators
Writers, educators and broadcasters with medical training.
Changed careers
Doctors who left clinical work, partly or entirely.
Unconventional paths
Lives that fit no category, including this list.
Every story
A whole life, not a highlight reel.
Each profile follows the same shape, so you can read one life against another. Sections the person chose not to discuss are left out, never filled in.
Portrait
Photographed with consent, in the place where their life happens.
Who they are
Name, training and current role, exactly as they describe them.
The introduction
Two or three sentences on why this life is worth your time.
The timeline
The milestones, dated, with the turning point marked.
The turning point
The decision or accident that changed the shape of things.
Money and career
Only what they chose to share, and only with their consent.
A life, now
What an ordinary week actually looks like.
The biggest mistake
Asked of everyone. The most useful answer in most interviews.
What they would do differently
With hindsight, and without false modesty.
For younger doctors
Advice specific to their path, not slogans.
Rapid fire
The same short questions for everyone, so lives can be compared.
Related stories
Other doctors who walked part of the same road.
Our standards
How we report a story
Profiles are easy to get wrong in both directions: flattering or careless. These rules apply to every one.
Real people, real interviews
Every story comes from interviews with the person in it. We never invent a subject, a quote or a detail, and we never publish composites.
Their words, approved
Quoted words are theirs, edited only for length and clarity. Each subject reads and approves their quotes before publication.
Consent, in writing
We publish a profile, a portrait or a name only with written consent. If someone asks for their name to be changed, we say so on the page.
Money only if volunteered
We never press for income, debt or investment details. When someone shares them, it is their choice, and we treat it as one person’s experience, not advice.
Costs as well as rewards
An unusual life has a price. A story that only celebrates is an advertisement, so we ask what it cost.
No payment, either way
We do not pay for stories, and nobody can pay to be profiled. Any relationship between writer and subject is declared on the page.
Know a life we should hear about?
Tell us about a doctor, or about yourself. We look for lives that are genuinely interesting rather than impressive, and we never charge or pay for a profile.
The Handover
New stories, most Sundays.
The Handover brings one considered letter a week, with each new story as it is published.