I was introduced to Dr. Abraham Verghese through a couple different venues, but interestingly all at about the same time. Last night, nursing a nasty headache, I put on his TEDMED talk from last year that looks at language and medicine. I found it utterly compelling, and if you click through, I’ve embedded it here. I thought it was such a poetic look at the not just the science, but the art of medicine, and I think you might enjoy it, as well.
Then this morning, Medscape sent me an email update about Dr. Verghese’s keynote talk at the American College of Cardiology, where he spoke about hands-on medicine in this age of EMRs (I haven’t watched this one yet). You can also read an interview with him, which in and of itself is fascinating. But I encourage you to watch his TED talk– it’s full of odd and wonderful things, like the only real love letter to syphilis I can think of in recent memory (it also had me chuckling as I reflected on my own practice, like how we use so many food metaphors when talking about things GYN-related). I can’t help wonder what he’d have to say about the work we do.