The Birth of Medical Dramaturgy - On the Occasion of the Published Book of Academician Benjamin Djulbegovic: “An Impossible Decision - the Life Interrupted by Uncertainty”
Background: The book “An Impossible Decision - the Life Interrupted by Uncertainty”has been published by Avicena Publisher in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2023 - ISBN: 978-9958-720-76-5. Objective: The aim of this article is to analize what is the most rational and ethical way to treat people facing life-and-death decisions and how do we exactly communicate these inevitable uncertainties that all of us will sooner or later face? Methods: Author of the book shows real-life relevance to patients often left alone to make these difficult decisions. Using the techniques of medical dramaturgy, this text brilliantly bridges science. Results and Discussion: The author of the book explained and proposed how to educate the public on how medical advances are made and how inferences and evidence are generated and appraised - in the best tradition of evidence-based medicine while highlighting uncertainties and inevitable trade-offs that accompany science, policies, and personal choices in the attempt to arrive at most satisfactory decisions. In addition to the general public, this play’s important audiences are students and faculty in humanities disciplines and medical schools. These students are required to read many dense scientific, philosophical, and technical writings (many of which are referenced/annotated in the footnotes in the play). The play provides an exceptional teaching tool, which includes over 35 theoretical concepts to show how they can be applied to decisions relevant to all of us and what shared decision- making entails. Conclusion: Author’s answer on the question “How to make the life and death medical decisions?” coul’d and shoul’d be: The method of using a playwright and Socrates dialogue format to connect the science of uncertainty with personal humanity decision will be appropriate. It will be important and quiet usefull for phisicians and, also, patients in healthcare practice, as joined decision makers.