Abraham Verghese
After a career as a physician, professor, and memoirist, Abraham Verghese became a bestselling novelist with the release of the wildly popular Cutting for Stone. He has been a featured lecturer at TED, and his numerous lectures cover diverse topics from his experience in medicine to the art of fiction. Read Full BiographyBooks by Abraham Verghese:
Cutting for Stone
A New York Times and USA Today bestseller, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles, and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.
See All BooksLectures & Speaking Topics
What the Pen Teaches the Stethoscope
Although it is often said that medicine is good practice for a novelist, could the converse be true? This lecture examines the ways that the craft and rules of writing provide insight and instruction to the practicioner.
Touching Where It Hurts: The Role and Ritual of the Bedside Exam
The diagnostic information provided by the bedside exam remains valuable and yet is eclipsed by more accurate ways of imaging the body. The result is a decline in bedside skills and a loss of the ability to make simple diagnoses. In addition, an essential ritual of medicine, one that is at the heart of the patient and physician relationship, may be lost. This talk explores the ethnography of the bedside ritual and what precisely is gained or lost when the exam is done well or not at all.
The Search for Meaning in a Medical Life
We often ask, where does meaning reside in our lives? This lecture is about the experience of taking care of patients with HIV in the mid 1980's in rural Tennessee and the lesson about the meaning of life imparted by patients.
Doctor, Heal Thyself
Using the true story of a friendship, this lecture is about the risk of addiction and suicide in the profession.
Media About Abraham Verghese
- Official Website for Stanford School of Medicine
- "Physician Revives a Dying Art: The Physical" —The New York Times
- "Three authors encourage Stanford freshmen to 'keep hoping and dreaming and fighting'" —Stanford University
- "Aloud Podcast" —Los Angeles Public Library
- "A doctor’s touch: Abraham Verghese on TED.com" —TED
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