Talking about Medical Errors
Doctors and nurses are petrified of making mistakes. They don’t want to kill their patients! But mistakes are inevitable and it’s critical to have a safe place to talk about and address the emotional aspect of medical errors. More
Hidden Curriculum of Medicine
Why do students lose touch with what drove them into medicine by the third year of school? Danielle Ofri talks about the hidden curriculum of medicine and its effect on students’ empathetic skills. More
Developing Empathy
Developing empathy requires good role models during clinical training. Those role models aren’t just your professors and your attendings. Teachers are everywhere in medicine, if you just keep your eyes open and pay attention. More
The Dirty Secret About Medical Errors
As physicians we see medicine as a science. We think of ourselves as rational, evidence-based practitioners. But we are far less rational than we tell our patients and ourselves that we are. More
Can We Let Doctors Be Human?
Is our vision clouded because we are so immersed in the world of sickness? Is it because this helps reinforce the power dynamic that has kept patients “in their place” for centuries? Or might it be because, like our patients we doctors are scared down to our bones? If we were to see our patients living the lives that we live, then there would be nothing to separate them from us. And then we could easily become them. More
NPR Interview with Brian Lehrer: Empathy for “Undesirable” Patients
Doctors have notorious contempt for alcoholics, drug addicts, and morbidly obese patients, and they often make little effort to conceal it. By unspoken rules, these patients are considered fair game for jokes by medical personnel at all levels. Hospital slang for such patients reflects not just disgust but also anger and resentment. More
Danielle Ofri on NPR’s ‘The Takeaway’
Danielle Ofri is interviewed by NPR’s John Hockenberry on ‘The Takeaway’ about whether medical school makes students jaded and bitter. More
Doctors’ Suicide discussed on NPR
What happens it’s the doctor who commits suicide? Sadly, physicians–as a group–have a higher suicide rate than other professionals. Here’s the story of one doctor and the effects of his death on his student. More
NPR Interview–Why Would Anyone Become a Doctor?
Danielle Ofri speaks on Minnesota Public Radio about why would anyone choose to become a doctor. Hear the story now. More
Interview for “A Sweet Life”
by Jane Kokernak “A Sweet Life” Danielle Ofri is a physician at New York’s Bellevue Hospital and co-founder and editor-in-chief of Bellevue Literary Review. Her twin roles are inextricable, and in both medicine and arts and letters she has illuminated how illness has meaning, in an individual’s life and in our culture. In the hospital … More
NPR: Medical Translation
Danielle is featured on an NPR story about medical translation in hospitals. In this photo she is using a special “language phone” with two handsets. She and the patient can speak to each other directly, with a remote interpreter providing simultaneous translation. (photo from WNYC website). Listen here: More
Leonard Lopate Show WNYC
Listen to Danielle Ofri interviewed by Leonard Lopate on WNYC FM 93.9 about her book “Medicine in Translation” and the ins and outs of medical care in America today. More
A Conversation with Alan Alda and Frank Stella
Danielle Ofri had the honor of appearing with Alan Alda, Frank Stella, Paula Scher, and Nobel Laureate Gunter Blobel in a panel discussion at Rockefeller University. The topic was “Compelled to Create.” More
Danielle Ofri profiled on NPR’s ‘All Things Considered’
Melissa Block of “All Things Considered” followed Danielle Ofri on her rounds at Bellevue Hospital. Listen below or read the transcript. And here is the wonderful poem Gaudeamus Igitur that Danielle read on the air. More
Interview about doctors, patients, books, and life
Listen to Joe Elia interview Danielle Ofri on Clinical Conversations (NEJM Journal Watch). They talk about the state of medicine, doctor-patient relationships, work-life balance, and the re-issue of her book “Singular Intimacies.” More
