Unheard: The Medical Practice of Silencing

(Hardback)

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'There's really no such thing as the "voiceless." There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.' Arundhati Roy

This is the prescription for a better health service for all.

Imagine a healthcare system that thrives and listens, instead of dismisses.

Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan believes such a healthcare system can exist, and using her experience as doctor, researcher, and patient, she gives her prescription for change, showing what can happen if we just listen.

In Unheard, Dr Dhairyawan takes us on a journey through history to show how not listening to patients has been ingrained in the story of medicine. Western medicine was built on the understanding that power should always lie with the doctor, and that patients should be powerless to decisions made about their body if it is done to make them well. This, alongside the prejudices of society that are reflected in medicine, has led to dramatic gaps in medical knowledge because for centuries vast demographics of people have not been heard.

By amplifying the voices of the most marginalised in society we will not only achieve health equity, but improve medicine for all. With true stories of silencing, neglect and injustice, Dr Dhairyawan opens the lid on the devastating impact medical bias can have and offers a way forward in which active and engaged listening is the new frontier.

This is a story of the unheard, and a timely expose of the medical world.

Author Bio

Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan is a doctor, researcher and science communicator. Her clinical work, research and advocacy focus on improving health equity particularly at the intersections of gender and ethnicity.

Rageshri qualified as a doctor in 2004 and has been an NHS Consultant in Sexual and HIV Medicine since 2012. She led the HIV service at Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust from 2013-17 when it was awarded 'Clinic of the Year for Ethnic Minority Patients' by the charity, Naz.

Rageshri is an experienced science communicator for general and specialist audiences. She is an inaugural Wellcome Collection x Spread the Word awardee 2022, where she has been supported to write this book proposal. She has written for The Lancet, BMJ Leader, Media Diversified, Discover Society and Cost of Living. She has appeared on The Victoria Derbyshire Show, Channel 5 News, BBC Woman's Hour, BBC World Service, BBC Sounds, BBC Asian Network, Masala Podcast, Global Health Lives and Race and Health podcasts.

She chaired the British HIV Association External Relations Group from 2017-21, leading on its communication strategy to patients, healthcare professionals, the media and public.