The health care world can be a noisy place: people shouting about regulation or chattering about costs and profits; scientists quibbling about clinical trial results; hospital alarms going off; the wailing of emergency sirens. With all the din, the patient’s voice often gets lost.

In this STAT special report, those lost voices speak out, in a collection of moving and deeply human first-person essays originally published in our First Opinion column. The authors write about their experiences as patients, but also as parents, as people who themselves work in the health care system, as volunteers who participate in clinical trials.

They write of feeling unheard or unseen. They share their vulnerabilities and their pain. They raise concerns but also describe what helped them, and made them stronger.Together, the pieces are a reminder of the humanity at the core of what health care is about, offering lessons that can help regulators, health care professionals, and drug developers improve outcomes for future patients.

Download this report, and hear what they have to say.