Editorial

The patient's journey: travelling through life with a chronic illness

BMJ 2004; 329 doi: 10.1136/bmj.329.7466.582 (Published 9 September 2004)
Cite this as: BMJ 2004;329:582

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  1. Peter Lapsley, chief executive (plapsley@eczema.org),
  2. Trish Groves, senior assistant editor (tgroves@bmj.com)
  1. Skin Care Campaign, London N19 5NA
  2. BMJ

    A new BMJ series to deepen doctors' understanding

    For many years we have been keen to bring patients' voices into the BMJ by publishing personal views and commentaries by patients. Now we are starting a new intermittent series of longer articles describing patients' experiences of living with chronic disease. The first of these articles is published today,1 and we hope that readers will send us more along the same lines.

    This journey describes the challenges of living with Parkinson's disease, and is written by Mary Baker and Lizzie Graham of the European Parkinson's Disease Association. The article started life as a speech by Mary Baker. It has no formal references and has a rousing and almost mythical style, following a long tradition of patients' tales.2 Subsequent articles may conform to the same style and structure but do not have to (see box).

    Journey articles should encompass how it feels to face a difficult diagnosis and what that does to relationships and quality …

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