ATRIUM Magazine of the Yale Health professional schools achieves for students what the atrium of the heart achieves for the human body. It offers a space in which to collect individual ideas, thoughts, and talents before they are propelled into the community at large.

In doing so, ATRIUM provides a forum for Yale health students to share and develop their creative interests. Students can contribute meaningfully by submitting their work, serving on the magazine's editorial board, or both. The magazine itself is a window into students' literary and artistic insights, giving us another view of the dynamic Yale health community.

The creative efforts of Yale students encompass a process distinct from our scientific involvements. Whereas in science we 'discover' those principles or facts that presumably exist with or without us, in the arts we create that which would never have come to fruition if it were not for us. Art is not a discovery -- it is a creation first and then the response to that creation.

While ATRIUM is a place to engage passions outside of health and science, it is also a reflection of our pursuits in health education, advocacy, and research. Students in the health profession lend a unique perspective into the creative arts. As people who seek the stories of patients and populations of patients, we value and cultivate the narratives that art, poetry, fiction and music can tell. Our studies inform our artistic endeavors, and our creative work conversely invigorates our practice of medicine. Through ATRIUM magazine, we hope to embrace this duality and illuminate the storytelling that underlies both our professional health and creative endeavors.