Internal Medicine Clerkship Director
Students involved in the eight-week Internal Medicine will be under the direction of Dr. Abraham Verghese. Dr. Verghese is Senior Associate Chair, and Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Stanford University. He has a strong interest in clinical skills and the teaching of the bedside exam and has published on these subjects and on the patient-physician relationship. Prior to coming to Stanford, he was the Director of The Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at the University Of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, where he held the Joaquin Cigarroa Jr. Chair in Medicine and was the Marvin Forland Distinguished Professor of Ethics.
Verghese is board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary diseases and infectious diseases. He serves on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine.
In 1990-91, he attended the Iowa Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa, where he obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree. His books, My Own Country and The Tennis Partner are taught in many medical schools as part of the humanities curriculum. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, The Atlantic, Esquire, Granta, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and elsewhere.
Abraham Verghese MD first novel, "Cutting for Stone," became a New York Times best seller on February 22, 2009, and has been on the San Francisco Chronicle best seller list for months.
Called "A masterpiece of traditional storytelling," by reviewers, "Cutting for Stone" is the story of cojoined twins separated in Central Ethopia who pursue a career in medicine, fall in love with the same woman and eventually wind up working in a hospital in New York City. Verghese is the author of 2 previous highly successful works of non fiction, "My Own Country, A Doctor's Story", and "The Tennis Partner, a Doctor's Story of Friendship and Loss.
In the Media
8/7/2009: Mending the Hospital Safety Net, in his latest Wall Street Journal column, Abraham Verghese, MD discusses the ways in which, individual and financial accountability can impact the the hospital system.
7/24/2009: Who Speaks for Medicine, an article in Wall Street Journal by Abraham Verghese, MD that speaks to the art of medicine, and the passion that draws medical students to the profession.
6/22/2009: The Myth of Prevention, Wall Street Journal article discusses the power of prevention and the Obama's speech to the AMA on health care reform.
5/5/2009:Abraham Verghese to write blogs two time a week for Atlantic.com. As a new correspondent for The Atlantic.com Dr. Verghese will write 2 blogs per week. He has written articles for The Atlantic magazine in the past and looks forward to reading comments from readers.
Listen to Dr. Verghese on KQED Forum, an interview with Michael Krasny on April 27, 2009
Read the first chapter of "Cutting for Stone"
In the December 25, 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) Abraham Verghese offers his outlook on patient care in Perspective, "Culture Shock — Patient as Icon, Icon as Patient".