I was taking care of people my age who were dying. The constant feeling, hearing from them, was that life is transient and can end very quickly, so don't postpone your dreams. Abraham Verghese agecareconstant Change image and share on social
We have the sense that medical students come to medicine with a great capacity to understand the suffering of patients. And then by the end of the third year they completely lose that ability, partly because we teach them the specialized language of medicine. Abraham Verghese abilitycapacitycompletely share on social
My advice for writers is to get a good day job. It takes the pressure off writing if you have a job that pays the bills. Abraham Verghese advicebillday Change image and share on social
I think we can see how blessed we are in America to have access to the kind of health care we do if we are insured, and even if uninsured, how there is a safety net. Now, as to the problem of how much health care costs and how we reform health care ... it is another story altogether. Abraham Verghese accessaltogetheramerica share on social
My sense is that the wonderful technology that we have to visualize the inside of the body often leaves physicians feeling that the exam is a waste of time and so they may shortchange the ritual. Abraham Verghese bodyexamfelt Change image and share on social
I love to read poetry but I haven't written anything that I'm willing to show anybody. Abraham Verghese lovepoetryread Change image and share on social
I think we learn from medicine everywhere that it is, at its heart, a human endeavor, requiring good science but also a limitless curiosity and interest in your fellow human being, and that the physician-patient relationship is key; all else follows from it. Abraham Verghese curiosityendeavorfellow share on social
Lets take away the incentives to do 'to' patients and instead create incentives to do 'for' patients, to be 'with' patients. We don't need to do comparative effectiveness trials to see if that works; we can just ask patients. Abraham Verghese comparativecreateeffectiveness share on social
In America, we have always taken it as an article of faith that we 'battle' cancer; we attack it with knives, we poison it with chemotherapy or we blast it with radiation. If we are fortunate, we 'beat' the cancer. If not, we are posthumously praised for having 'succumbed after a long battle.' Abraham Verghese americaarticleattack share on social
What we need in medical schools is not to teach empathy, as much as to preserve it - the process of learning huge volumes of information about disease, of learning a specialized language, can ironically make one lose sight of the patient one came to serve; empathy can be replaced by cynicism. Abraham Verghese cynicismdiseaseempathy share on social