Bard Bard In medieval Gaelic and British culture, a bard was a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or noble), to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities. Originally a specific, lower class of poet, contrasting with the higher rank known as "fili" in Ireland and Highland Scotland, with the decline of living bardic tradition in the modern period the term "bard" acquired generic meanings of an author or minstrel, especially a famous one. For example, William Shakespeare, and Rabindranath Tagore,
Institute on Medicine as a Profession Institute on Medicine as a Profession Founded in 2003, the Institute on Medicine as a Profession (IMAP) is a non-profit health care policy think tank housed at Columbia University in New York City. Its primary area of focus is the concept of medical professionalism. Other areas of IMAP’s academic focus include conflicts of interest in the health care industry; the role of physicians in national security interrogations; marketing practices in the drug, alcohol, food and tobacco industries; and health information technology. IMAP also funds a physician advocacy grants program that aims to train physicians to advocate for policy change at