About

My name is Philip Berry and I am a medical consultant (in gastroenterology, hepatology and general medicine) seeking to improve public understanding about medical decision making. I work at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital in central London. Here you will find posts that provide insights into how (I think) doctors think.

The blog has been up and running since August 2012. Recurring subjects include end of life care, resuscitation decisions, assisted dying and the challenge of providing compassionate care in busy environments. I also explore education, training, the nature of the medical ‘apprenticeship’ and books that touch on medical matters. A recent innovation has been the Interactive Ward Ethics feature, in which you link into a parallel site and are asked to play the role of a trainee doctor by making decisions in difficult ethical scenarios. Try one and see!

You can follow me on Twitter @philaberry for notification of new posts.

I also write fiction and science fiction. My books can be explored via my Amazon author page.

The most recent book is Necessary Scars – A Doctor’s Life in Error (CRC press). This is a collection of stories, vignettes and observations gathered from my career in medicine.

My medical novels PROXIMITY and EXTREMIS explore what happens when paternalism, ingenuity and medical sociopathy combine – euthanasia.

A blog page listing my previous academic publications can be accessed here or at ResearchGate here.