Articles & Media

Talking With Doctors

Imagine falling mysteriously ill in a foreign country, in which the language, culture, and customs have no bearing on your own. Imagine trying to find medical help and evaluating your potential healers without understanding the territory, while the shadow of imminent death lingers over your shoulder. This is roughly the experience that David Newman underwent when he discovered that he had a rare tumor that was hovering precariously near his brain stem. The foreign capital was a certain well-known medical city on the Hudson River. More

New York Times review of “Incidental Findings”

Ofri’s thoughtful and honest second book…is equal parts “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” and “Kitchen Confidential.” The title is inspired by her realization, during her own amniocentesis, that conditions that seem minor to doctors are monumental when they happen to you. More

Prairie Schooner review of “Incidental Findings”

Danielle Ofri is a shaman. She might balk at the title as a medical doctor, yet her essays grapple with moments when traditional medicine has failed her, when science seems no more than empty ritual, and she feels as blind as her patients to the mysteries of health and illness. In such moments, Ofri instinctively turns to her patients’ emotional anatomy: the tumors of despair, the hot blood of hope, the pulsing will to live. More

Bookworm Sez review of “Incidental Findings”

When I got this book, I couldn’t wait to read it. I loved Ofri’s first book, so I knew what awaited me and I wasn’t disappointed. Danielle Ofri writes with grace and gentle humor. She uses real medical terms, but she makes them easy to understand. She’s thoughtful and compassionate; the kind of physician everyone hopes to have. She’s willing to admit when she was wrong (or not quite right), which is something not a lot of doctors are brave enough to admit in public. More

NEJM review of “Incidental Findings”

Ofri reminds us that medicine is really about the bond between a patient and a physician. “Incidental Findings” is a beautiful book. Ofri has enough faith in her patients, her profession, and herself to tell it all. More

JAMA review of “Incidental Findings”

In several stories Ofri recounts her own experiences as a patient. She is surprised at how different things are on the other end of the doctor-patient relationship. Ofri discovers firsthand how poorly doctors prepare their patients for procedures and explain findings that may be ordinary in medicine but are frightening to patients.The writing is engaging, and I highly recommend Incidental Findings to anyone who wants to read a short, well-written, and thought-provoking book. More

They Sent Me Here

“They told me to give you this,” she said, as she pushed an envelope across the desk toward me. I’ve always been intrigued by who “they” are — those mystery people referred to with such assumed authority and universality. Particularly in a large city hospital, in which the staff is mammoth and constantly changing, “they” constitute a particularly encompassing force. More

Evidence-Based Medicine

Evidence-based medicine often induces more confusion than clarity. It also means different things to different people. More

Residency Regulations—Resisting Our Reflexes

Our instinctive resistance to change reflects not just nostalgia, but the fact that our years of medical training define us in an iconic fashion unique to this profession. Medical training sets social, clinical, and moral barometers by which decades of professional and personal life are gauged. These brief years imprint a personal definition in a manner not seen in other fields: one rarely hears MBAs clucking about crumbling standards and the days of the giants—most view the younger generation with unabashed envy. More

A patient’s heartache, lost in translation

A conversation is a dance between two people, and it involves connection. Speaking through an interpreter, whether it be a human being in the room or a phone handed back and forth, doesn’t allow the same sort of connection. Patients are much less likely to reveal sensitive issues when there is a third-party in the conversation.

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JAMA review of “Singular Intimacies”

In “Singular Intimacies” Ofri chronicles her training in an adept and touching manner…I found Singular Intimacies extremely engaging. It contains an accurate portrayal of life as a doctor-in-training in a big city hospital. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants an easy-to-read yet thought-provoking book. More

Rationing Patient Care–NPR

Commentator Danielle Ofri is a physician at a big New York City hospital. She tells the story of how a poor patient had little choice but to wait months for a specialist; this would not have been the case if the patient had money. More

Missing the Final Act

Diseases, like dramas, have a natural progression. There are introductions, developments, climaxes, and dénouements. More

Torment

I groan when I catch sight of her name on the patient roster. Nazma Uddin. Not again! She is in my clinic office almost every month. I dread her visits, and today is no exception. More

The Patient vs The Illness

So often in medicine we make it sound like the patient is responsible for the clinical outcomes of their illness. More