For more than 20 years, the Department of Medicine has organized a lecture series focused on ethics and the compassionate care of patients. This year, the Alexander Richman Commemorative Award and Lecture in Humanism and Ethics began a new and integrative approach to expand its scope.
Newly named the Alexander Richman, MD and Charlotte Yudell, MD Seminar Series on Humanism and Ethics in Medicine, the series kicked off on September 22 with “Transforming Grief through Neuroscience, Narrative, and Community” the first event in the annual four-part series. The lecture featured professionally acted scenes from “The Guys,” a play focused on fire captain Nick and editor Joan as she helps him prepare eulogies for the firefighters in his unit who died on September 11. The series concluded with a panel discussion featuring the play’s author Anne Nelson, Daniela Schiller, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, and Philip Lister, MD, Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry. Plans are underway for the next event in the series, “Coping with Loss: A Bioethical Perspective,” slated for February 16, 2017.