Award-winning author and leading advocate for the value of bedside medicine skills, Professor Abraham Verghese, will deliver an evening lecture on ‘High-Touch in a Hi-Tech Age: Humanistic Care in a Pandemic’ at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences on Thursday, 20 October 2022.

Professor Verghese MD, FRCP(Edin), is trained in infectious diseases and pulmonary medicine and holds the Linda R. Meier and Joan F. Lane Provostial Professorship and is the Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. He received an Honorary Doctorate from RCSI in 2014, the highest academic award given by the university, to exceptional people who have made a difference to the world through education, research or service.

The lecture, which is part of the university’s RCSI Educate series, will include a panel discussion chaired by Professor Hannah McGee, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at RCSI. Professor Verghese will be joined on the panel by:

• Professor Denis Harkin, Chair of Medical Professionalism, RCSI
• Professor Jan Illing, Director of the Health Professions Education Centre, RCSI
• Mr Amit Kalra, RCSI Student Union President
• Ms Anna Dillon, Fifth Year Pharmacy student, RCSI

Professor McGee commented: “We are delighted to welcome Professor Abraham Verghese back to RCSI to deliver this RCSI Educate lecture. Professor Verghese is a strong advocate for the value of bedside medicine skills and physical diagnosis; skills he sees as waning in an era of increasingly sophisticated medical technology. His values concerning the practice of medicine, and skilled communication of these as a writer to a wide public as well as professional audience, are values that seamlessly align with RCSI’s.”

In addition to patient care and teaching, Professor Verghese leads PRESENCE, a multidisciplinary center that studies the human experience of patients, physicians and caregivers. He is a 1991 graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and his work has appeared in the New Yorker, Granta, The Atlantic, The New York Times and elsewhere; his first book, My Own Country, was made into a movie; his last novel, Cutting for Stone, spent 107 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.

His new novel, The Covenant of Water, appears in May 2023. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2016 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal at the White House by President Obama.

Attendance at the RCSI Educate lecture with Professor Verghese, taking place at 6:30pm at RCSI, 123 St Stephen’s Green in Dublin, is free of charge. However, registration is essential. Learn more about this event and how to register here.