Abraham Verghese: Neilly Series Lecture

Abraham Verghese is a renowned physician, best-selling author, and Professor for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He lectures widely on the importance of the doctor-patient relationship, on the samaritan function of physicians, and on where meaning resides in a medical life

He will discuss his latest work, Cutting for Stone. Much of his life's work is brought to bear in this debut novel, which has been celebrated by critics around the country. Entertainment Weekly praised the novel as "a lovely ode to the medical profession…The doctor in [Verghese] sees the luminous beauty of the physician's calling; the artist recognizes that there remain wounds no surgeon can mend."

Verghese has also written two nonfiction books: My Own Country, a memoir about treating AIDS patients in rural Tennessee, and The Tennis Partner, about his close friendship with a drug-addicted physician. The Tennis Partner was a New York Times Notable Book and a national best seller.

His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, The Atlantic, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. A moving speaker, he is also acclaimed as a dedicated and inspiring teacher of medicine at the bedside and is a sought-after clinician and diagnostician. All of Abraham Verghese's works, fiction and non-fiction, reflect his view of medicine as a passionate pursuit and a priestly calling. Photo © Joanne Chan.

Introduction by Dr. Seymour I. Schwartz, Distinguished Alumni Professor of Surgery