"I love medicine. I feel exhilarated when working with patients. I wouldn't change my life for anything," Paul Wilson Brand, a surgeon, said at the first ever John P. McGovern Lecture last night.
C. Everett Koop, former Surgeon General and head of the Koop Institute, said the Institute is planning more speeches linking medicine and humanities, which will fall under the McGovern series label.
The series is to "show that good medicine is the science of the art of medicine," Koop said in his introduction of Brand.
In his lecture, titled "A Doctor's Life: The Pursuit of Happiness," Brand said patients need to have an active role in their health care. "My patients feel better about themselves and my attitude towards them," he said.
"Patients should ask themselves, 'is this doctor really here for me or am I here for this doctor?'" Brand said.
Brand said doctors should help their patients understand the potential of their own bodies. "Some doctors emphasize the importance of and the need for science instead of realizing that bodies heal themselves," he said.
Roshni Alli '97, who attended the speech, said, "I think Brand made an excellent point about the change in medicine. Medicine has become more mechanical and impersonal. Doctors shouldn't be so high and mighty."
In World War II, Brand patched up soldiers hit by bombs from Nazis. He was a missionary to India for 20 years and pioneered techniques in reconstructive surgery of the hand. He also made many important contributions to research involving Leprosy, founding the All-Africa Leprosy and Rehabilitation Training Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Brand received the Medallion of the Surgeon General from Koop while he was acting Surgeon General. "Every time I am with Dr. Brand, I learn something," Koop said.
