The transparency conundrum – Danielle Ofri, MD

Apple Podcast | Spotify

Episode 75 | Duration: 34:38

Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, is one of the foremost voices in the medical world today, shining an unflinching light on the realities of healthcare and speaking passionately about the doctor-patient relationship. She writes about medicine and the doctor-patient connection. Her writing appears in the New York Times, The New Yorker, and the Atlantic, as well as the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Ofri is a founder and Editor-in-Chief of Bellevue Literary Review, the first literary journal to arise from a medical setting, now an award-winning, independent nonprofit literary arts organization. She is a primary care internist at Bellevue Hospital and a clinical professor of medicine at NYU. Dr. Ofri has given TED talks on Deconstructing Perfection and Fear: A Necessary Emotion, and has also performed stories for the Moth. She is featured in the documentaries “Why Doctors Write” and “White Coat Rebels.”

In this episode, Dr. Ofri talks about an article she published in the New Yorker titled, “The Curious Side Effects of Medical Transparency.” She delves into how the act of exposing medical notes to patients necessarily changes their purpose and their content, and how that, in turn, changes the thinking processes of clinicians. She also talks about how art and expression are both integral to and separate from the art and science of medicine. Finally, Dr. Ofri offers advice to rising clinicians about how to separate their responsibilities from their identities to support sustainable practice.

Links related to Dr. Ofri’s podcast episode:

• Dr. Ofri’s website, which includes links to her books, articles, TED talks, and the Bellevue Literary Review