Dr. Awdish’s near-death experience revealed a dark hole at the center of what was otherwise highly-proficient, astoundingly skillful care. What she learned was that, though the healing potential of knowledge is magical, it is also a lie: Medicine cannot heal in a vacuum; it requires connection. Her talk will focus on what is needed to heal medicine, and how medical training distances physician from patients. Ultimately, it is only by giving primacy to the patient narrative, building resilience in the physician, and forming a community that we can hope to reunite the pieces into a cohesive whole, with the power to heal us all.

Detroit, Michigan. She serves as Medical Director for both Care Experience and the Pulmonary Hypertension Program. In addition to her critically acclaimed, bestselling memoir, In Shock, she also has written for the Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, and the New England Journal of Medicine. In 2017, she was named National Compassionate Caregiver of the Year by the Schwartz Foundation, and Physician of the Year by Press Ganey. Her work focuses on improving healthcare for both providers and patients, through compassionate communication, medical humanities, and finding joy in our shared purpose.

This is the fifth in a series of ten lectures covering various topics. One lecture is presented on the second Tuesday of each month during the academic year. The next lecture will be March 10, 2020. The title is: What About Weed? The Cannabis Controversy, Past, Present, and Future.