On Reading the Body (with Dr. Abraham Verghese)
The Doctor's Art
Henry Bair and Tyler Johnson
5 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2022
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dr. Abraham Verghese is a prolific writer and revered physician who has deeply contemplated the philosophical underpinnings of the practice of medicine. He is renowned as an advocate for the importance of bedside examination and physical diagnosis, and his best-selling books probe the intricacies of human connection in the context of healthcare. In this episode, Dr. Verghese discusses how maintaining a literary life has impacted his approach to doctoring, why the human touch still matters for healing in our increasingly digital age, and his vision of the future of medicine.
In this episode, you will hear about:
- How Dr. Verghese’s love of literature influenced his decision to enter medicine - 2:39
- Reflections on the challenges of contemporary medicine - 7:51
- How physical exams can be seen as a ritual for “reading the body like a book” - 10:07
- Dr. Verghese’s perspective on the future of doctor-patient relationships given the rise of telemedicine and other technologies - 20:36
- Balancing the need to connect with each patient for their treatment, while being responsible for so many at once - 26:23
- How the craft of writing relates to medicine for Dr. Verghese - 31:50
- The counterintuitive diagnostic efficiency of taking the time and care to meet patients where they are at - 35:45
Dr. Verghese is the author of three books:
My Own Country (1994) - traces the story of young Dr. Verghese in the mid-1980s in Johnson City, Tennessee, who began to treat patients with a then unknown disease, HIV.
The Tennis Partner (1999) - Dr. Verghese writes of his experience moving to El Paso in the midst of an unraveling marriage. There, he meets and becomes a mentor to David Smith, a medical resident at the hospital and a brilliant tennis player recovering from drug addiction.
Cutting for Stone (2009) - a novel about twin brothers, orphaned by their mother's death in childbirth and forsaken by their father.
The book that Dr. Verghese credits as having inspired him to pursue medicine is Of Human Bondage (1915), by William Somerset Maugham - Available for free
Follow Dr. Verghese on Twitter @cuttingforstone and visit his website AbrahamVerghese.org.
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Henry Bear. |
| 0:03.4 | And I'm Tyler Johnson. |
| 0:04.8 | And you're listening to the Doctors' Art, a podcast that explores meaning in medicine. |
| 0:09.9 | Throughout our medical training and career, we have pondered, what makes medicine meaningful? |
| 0:15.2 | Can a stronger understanding of this meaning create better doctors? |
| 0:18.8 | How can we build healthcare institutions that nurture the doctor-patient connection? |
| 0:23.1 | What can we learn about the human condition from accompanying our patients in times of suffering? |
| 0:28.0 | In seeking answers to these questions, we meet with deep thinkers working across healthcare, |
| 0:33.1 | from doctors and nurses to patients and healthcare executives, those who have collected a career's worth of harder and wisdom. |
| 0:40.2 | Proving the moral heart that beats at the core of medicine, we will hear stories that are by turns heartbreaking, |
| 0:45.6 | amusing, inspiring, challenging, and enlightening. |
| 0:49.3 | We welcome anyone curious about why doctors do what they do. |
| 0:52.9 | Join us as we think out loud about what illness and healing can teach us about some of life's biggest questions. |
| 1:03.7 | We are honored to be joined today by Dr. Abraham Bergees, who is arguably one of the most celebrated physician writers and humanists in practice today. |
| 1:11.8 | His three books, Cutting for Stone, My Own Country, and The Tennis Partner, |
| 1:16.1 | have all been national or international bestsellers and have garnered numerous accolades. |
| 1:21.0 | In addition, he has published extensively in the medical literature and has written essays for the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, |
| 1:28.2 | and other notable publications across the United States. |
| 1:31.7 | Dr. Bergees is currently professor and senior associate chair for the theory and practice of medicine at Stanford University. |
| 1:38.9 | As a leading advocate for the value of bedside skills and physical diagnosis, |
| 1:42.8 | he leads an initiative at Stanford teaching fundamental physical exam and diagnostic skills to residents. |
| 1:48.6 | In 2016, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama. |
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