What has CLOSLER meant to you?

David Hellman, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

CLOSLER means the world to me. That physicians from many different cities and countries read and contribute to CLOSLER reminds me that clinical excellence is a value that unites all of us everywhere.

Laura Hanyok, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

CLOSLER is a place where I go to to feel rejuvenated as a clinician. Reading the stories and insights of others helps me to grow as a physician and feel connected to other physicians all over the globe.

Michael Crocetti, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

CLOSLER is a special place to celebrate clinical excellence. As a physician, what drives me to be better is improving the emotional psychological, social, and physical health of children and families. CLOSLER inspires me to strive for excellence by listening to, learning from, and acting for all patients.

Mike Fingerhood, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Panagis Galiatsatos, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Scott Wright, MD, CLOSLER Executive Editor

Habits guide me and have helped me to achieve various goals. Reading each day’s CLOSLER piece has become a habit aligned with my desire to continually grow as a clinician. Because I know that amazing role model writers spend a lot of time (often weeks) to get their CLOSLER reflection just right, spending of 1-4 minutes each day reading their message is a wise use of my time. I am definitely “GETTING CLOSLER.”

Jeffrey Millstein, Penn Medicine

CLOSLER is a wonderful community of creative and thoughtful clinicians. It’s been an invaluable source of inspiration to me as a doctor and writer—truly a source of both Closeness and Oslerian ideals.

Michelle Gyenes, med students, Royal College of Ireland

Contributing to CLOSLER has been a highlight of my medical student experience, both through my own personal reflection and from reading and learning from the submissions of others.

Margaret Chisolm, MD, CLOSLER Executive Editor

CLOSLER has helped me get closer to Osler by giving me a community with whom to share my reflections on the role of the arts and humanities (loves of Osler) museum in the professional development of patient-centered clinicians.

Gretchen Miller, MA, CLOSLER Managing Editor

I’m lucky and grateful to be part of a community of deeply caring humans helping to heal the world.

Margot Kelly-Hedrick, MBE, Johns Hopkins Medicine

CLOSLER gives me hope for the future of medicine.

Kimberly Turner, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

CLOSLER has given me the opportunity to share my many years of experience with a large readership.

Flora Smyth-Zhara, dentist, Kings College London

It’s been a great pleasure to contribute to  CLOSLER. I’m very proud to be a part of a community focused on providing clinically excellent, compassionate care for patients, and an innovative source of support for colleagues across the health professions.

David Wu, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

As Huey Lewis once sang, “the heart of rock ‘n roll is still beating.” So is the heart of medicine. CLOSLER is one place where medicine wears its heart—and its art—on its sleeve.

David Kopacz, MD, University of Washington

CLOSLER has created a community of visionary and compassionate clinicians who see beyond the diagnosis and treatment of disease to the timeless human elements of relationship and healing.

Aidan Crowley, pre-med student, University of Notre Dame

Thanks to CLOSLER. I’ve been able to explore what it means to care for human beings who are suffering and to enter into their lives in the role of a physician.

Crystal Favorito, pre-med student, Johns Hopkins University

To me, CLOSLER means making the commitment to be open, consider different perspectives, and become the best physician that I can be.

Aline Charabaty, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

CLOSLER is a reminder of why we went into medicine and an inspiration to continue to do better every day. It’s a reminder to keep the patient at the center of what we do and to keep the joy in our practice.

Shannon Scott-Vernaglia, MD, Mass General

CLOSLER helps us to reconnect with our core values and purpose as a clinician and as a human.

Ambereen Mehta, MD, Los Angeles, CA

CLOSLER has connected me in new ways to colleagues across the country! I love reading stories about caregivers and patients while continuously striving for personal and professional excellence.

Souvik Chaterjee, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

CLOSLER has shown me the depth and breadth of medical care. It’s allowed me to see medicine all around me, utilize all my experiences outside of medicine, and apply them to understanding the patients I care for. It’s enriched my practice as a physician. 

Colleen Christmas, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

CLOSLER has been a breath of fresh air, a quick boost of albuterol when my doctoring is feeling tight and wheezy. I love that in very quick reads, I can recenter and focus on the most wonderful parts of medicine each week.

Chase Webber, DO, Vanderbilt University

CLOSLER is a reminder of the “enduring values of the medical profession” (@Harrisons_IM, Chapter 1) in a time when we need that reminder more than ever before.