Pritzker News
Surgeon and Author Dr. Atul Gawande Delivers 2009 Commencement Address
Atul Gawande, MD, MPH
June 15 , 2009—Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health, and Associate Director for the Brigham and Women’s Center for Surgery and Public Health joined the Class of 2009 as the speaker for the Divisional Academic Hooding Ceremony (DAC). The DAC took place on June 12, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. on the University of Chicago Midway.
Dr. Gawande spoke to Pritzker graduates about the great need for rising physicians to change the health care system:
"As you head into training and then further onward into practice, you will be allowed into people’s lives in a way that no one else in society is permitted. You will see amazing things. And you will develop extraordinary abilities. Along the way, you will sometimes feel worn down and your cynicism taking over. But resist. Look for those in your community who are making health care better, safer, and less costly. Pay attention to them. Learn how they do it. And join with them."
Dr. Gawande is an accomplished surgeon who has achieved tremendous success as a writer, as well. As a regular columnist for the New England Journal of Medicine, a staff writer for The New Yorker, the author of two books, and the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship in 2006, Dr. Gawande is world-renowned for his articulate perspectives on medicine. His work often looks at the difficult aspects of the health care system, with a focus on how to improve it both at a macro level and at a micro level within the operating room.
Of the way in which doctors can best go about the practice of medicine, Dr. Gawande notes, “Science has brought us thousands of things we can do—and each is very complicated, and most of it resides in the heads of many different people. We're confronted with the complexity of society now, and the experience of actually dealing with it is painful. We're in the machine. All we can do is try to think in morally clear terms about our goals and try to be creative.”
This year, 113 students graduated from the Pritzker School of medicine. For more information on the 2009 Graduation timeline and events, please visit the Graduation website.
Dr. Gawande's address is printed in full in The New Yorker.
