TY - JOUR T1 - New perspectives in Medical Humanities JF - Medical Humanities JO - J Med Humanit SP - 1 LP - 1 DO - 10.1136/medhum-2015-010730 VL - 41 IS - 1 AU - Deborah Bowman Y1 - 2015/06/01 UR - http://mh.bmj.com/content/41/1/1.abstract N2 - It is a pleasure and a privilege to be able to introduce this guest-edited edition of Medical Humanities on the theme of the ‘Critical Medical Humanities’. The issue is the result of outstanding leadership by William Viney, Felicity Callard and Angela Woods who have demonstrated their commitment to both intellectual originality and unforgiving editorial deadlines throughout the process. Their work has brought together a collection of papers that are exciting, stimulating and engaging.There are a number of ways in which this special edition offers rich, and perhaps new, ways of conceptualising and contributing to the field known as the medical or health humanities. The first noteworthy point is the identities of the authors and the way in which they were persuaded to become involved in writing for this journal. Many of the authors are at the earlier stages of their academic careers. A significant number of them might not have considered themselves as working in, or having a relationship with, the ‘medical humanities’.Yet, thanks to the imagination and the inclusive approach of the team at Durham who have guest-edited this issue, these scholars were encouraged to reflect on whether and how their work might inform and enrich the medical and health humanities. In … ER -