Bestselling US health writer gives Wellington public lecture

Bestselling US health writer Dr Atul Gawande gives Wellington public lecture

Dr Atul Gawande, one of the world’s biggest-selling and most influential health writers, is to give a public lecture in Wellington.

Dr Gawande, an American surgeon who writes about health for the New Yorker magazine, is the author of books such as The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right and, most recently, Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine, and What Matters in the End.

Being Mortal has sparked much international discussion and has tapped into fresh thinking about the importance of advance care planning and what people want from aged and end-of-life care.

Last year, Dr Gawande gave the prestigious Reith Lectures for the BBC in the UK.

His Wellington lecture is on Monday 18 May at 6pm–7.30pm (doors open5.30pm) in Shed 6 on Wellington waterfront and is being hosted by the Health Quality & Safety Commission, with support from PwC. Tickets are $10 (plus booking fee).

Broadcaster and lawyer Linda Clark will introduce the lecture and moderate audience questions afterward.

‘Time magazine called Being Mortal mandatory reading for every American,’ says Commission chair Professor Alan Merry. ‘I would call it mandatory reading for everyone, because everyone will go through one or more of the experiences it examines – a terminal event or illness, growing old, and dying.

‘No one, therefore, should miss what Dr Gawande has to say about better tailoring our handling of these experiences to the individual involved, with a greater emphasis on the wishes of patients and their families instead of being bound by inflexible medical and aged care systems.’

Earlier on 18 May, Dr Gawande will be headlining a day-long forum for health professionals and people working in the aged and end-of-life care sectors, which is also being hosted by the Commission with support from PwC.

He will be coming on to Wellington from the 2015 Auckland Writers Festival, where he is in conversation with Commission board member Dr David Galler, an intensive care specialist at Middlemore Hospital, on Saturday 16 May at 5.30pm; and in a panel conversation on the future onSunday 17 May at 3pm. Both events are in the Aotea Centre’s ASB Theatre, with tickets, priced from $15, available fromwww.ticketmaster.co.nz.

Tickets for Dr Gawande’s Wellington public lecture are available from www.ticketek.co.nz, 0800 TICKETEK (842 538) and Ticketek outlets (see website for addresses).

For further information, contact Commission communications coordinator Guy Somerset, (04) 913 1745, 021 813 591,guy.somerset@hqsc.govt.nz.

For further information on Dr Gawande’s Auckland Writers Festival appearances, contact Penny Hartill, director, hPR, (09) 445 7525, 021 721 424, penny@hartillpr.co.nz.

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