Hachette India

Unheard

Rageshri Dhairyawan

Have you ever felt unheard by your doctor? Been frustrated that they haven't understood your symptoms, that they have neglected your concerns?

When Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan was admitted to hospital as a patient she didn't receive the pain medication that she told them she needed, despite her being a senior doctor. It was in that moment she understood that something was deeply wrong with our healthcare system. Doctors aren't listening, and it is making us ill.

In Unheard, Dr Dhairyawan takes us on a journey through history to show how not listening to patients has been ingrained in medicine from its inception. Western medicine has been built on the assumption 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, has led to dramatic gaps in medical knowledge because for centuries people have not been heard.

Dr Dhairyawan offers a way to reshape our health system for a future where active and engaged listening is the new frontier in a timely, shocking and engaging exposÃ© of the medical world.

Rageshri Dhairyawan

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.