The Lancet The Wakley Prize Essay 2019: getting better

The Wakley Prize—named after The Lancet's founding editor Thomas Wakley—will be awarded to the best essay on any clinical topic of importance to health. Your essay could be about the ideas, relationships, experiences, or encounters that make what you do meaningful, improved a patient's quality of life, changed your practice or research, challenged inequities, changed norms, or brought moments of recognition, humour, connection, or learning. It could be about what gets you through your day. Give us the complete picture.
The versatile form of the essay allows for a union of thought and feeling, intimacy and truth. We are looking for provocative pieces that make us think about a subject in unexpected ways. We expect originality, flair, and beautiful writing that informs, entertains, and enlightens us.
Anyone who works in a health-related field can enter the Wakley Prize competition, and you can be at any career stage—a student, in training, working your way up the ladder, established in your field, or looking back at decades of work. Essays must be original and should not have been previously published elsewhere in print or online. Only one submission per author is allowed and essays should not contain any information that might identify individual patients. The length of your essay should be 1600–2000 words. Submit your essay through The Lancet's online editorial submission system with Wakley Prize selected as the article type. The deadline is Oct 15, 2019. Entries will be anonymised and judged by Lancet editors. The winner of the Wakley Prize will receive £2000, and the essay will be published in The Lancet. We look forward to reading your essays.