Humanities lecture features physician-writer and poet, David Watts, MD

Sept. 18, 2012 College News - David Watts, MD, physician-writer and poet, will be the featured speaker at the Medical College’s 7th annual Medical Humanities Lecture on Thursday, Sept. 27, at 5 p.m.  Dr. Watt’s lecture, entitled, “What Literature Can Do For Medicine,” is sponsored by the college’s Medical Humanities Program, a component of the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities in the Institute for Health and Society. A book signing and reception will follow the lecture.

Dr. Watts is a gastroenterologist who teaches at the University of California - San Francisco Medical School. He earned a Masters in English Poetry from San Francisco State University and now teaches poetry at the Fromm Institute. His books include, “Bedside Manners: One Doctor’s Reflections on the Oddly Intimate Encounters between Patient and Healer,” “Taking the History: A Book of Poems,” and he is editor of the anthology, “The Healing Art of Writing: Essays, Prose and Poems on Illness and Healing.” His commentaries have been featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

“Dr. Watts, through his writing and practice, exemplifies the qualities that the MCW Medical Humanities Program fosters in medical students and physicians: professionalism, communication, empathy and reflection,” said Arthur Derse, MD, JD, Director of the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities, Julia and David Uihlein Professor of Medical Humanities, and Professor of Bioethics and Emergency Medicine.

The event is free and open to the public, and will be held in the HRC auditorium at the Medical College, located at 8701 Watertown Plank Road.

For more information, call (414) 955-8498.

"What Literature Can Do For Medicine" poster