News Release

April 22, 2004

Contact: Jane Shaskan, 860-679-4777
e-mail: shaskan@nso.uchc.edu

Dr. Rita Charon to Speak at UConn Health Center

Columbia University Expert Recently Featured in New York Times Magazine

FARMINGTON, CONN. – Rita Charon, M.D., Ph.D., who has written and lectured extensively on the importance of literature to medical practice, the doctor-patient relationship, empathy in medicine, and narrative competence and ethics, will be speaking Tuesday, April 27, from 4 to 5:15 p.m. in the UConn Health Center’s Link Room.

Dr. Charon is the director of the Program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University, which focuses on teaching literature, literary theory and creative writing. The program is directed to medical students and is being adapted by a number of medical schools nationwide. At the Health Center, she will present “Narrative Medicine: Humanities Practice and Clinical Effectiveness.”

Dr. Charon is also professor of clinical medicine and editor-in-chief of the journal Literature and Medicine. She is co-editor of Stories Matter: The Role of Narrative Medicine Ethics and is currently working on a book titled Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness. She was also the subject of a feature article in the April 18 issue of the New York Times Magazine.

She has been honored with numerous honors including achievement awards from the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American College of Physicians, the Society for Health and Human Values, and the Society of General Internal Medicine.

The presentation is geared toward health care professionals, but is open to the public. To attend, call 860-679-5495.

The University of Connecticut Health Center includes the schools of medicine and dental medicine, John Dempsey Hospital, the UConn Medical Group and University Dentists. Founded in 1961, the Health Center pursues a mission of providing outstanding health care education in an environment of exemplary patient care, research and public service. To learn more about the UConn Health Center, visit our website at www.uchc.edu.

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