The Wound is the Gift
Dr. Awdish speaks on the lessons learned from surviving critical illness. She focuses on the illuminating power of moments that shatter our bodies and allow us access to truths. “The Wound is the Gift” is an inspiring talk about how confronting our own mortality can help us to find meaning and peace. Ultimately, our dependence on each other and our interconnectedness are beautiful.

In Shock
As a critically-ill patient, Dr. Awdish appreciated a dark hole at the center of a flurry of what was otherwise highly-proficient, astoundingly skillful care. It took years of being a patient to understand that though the healing potential of knowledge is magical, it is also a lie. Medicine cannot heal in a vacuum; it requires connection.

The Power of Words
From her experience as a patient, Dr. Awdish saw how inadvertently hurtful even an amazing doctor’s words could be. There is suffering that is intrinsic to disease, and then there is the suffering that we confer, which is very much avoidable.

The Broken Vessel
Dr. Awdish focuses on what is needed to heal medicine and how medical training distances physicians from patients. It is only by giving primacy to the patient narrative, building resilience in physicians, and forming a community that we can hope to reunite the sparks to a cohesive whole, with the power to heal us all.

McGill University White Coat Ceremony Class of 2020 from Rana Awdish on Vimeo.

Rana Awdish, MD – Pt. Experience Summit 2017 from Rana Awdish on Vimeo.

Sepsis and Empathy Lecture from Rana Awdish on Vimeo.

The New York Times’ shortlist “Putting Down the Scalpel, Picking Up the Pen”

“Brush With Death Leads Doctor To Focus On Patient Perspective”

“Meet Rana Awdish, a Critical Care Doctor on the Coronavirus Front Lines”

“Michigan doctors prepare for tough conversations and choices as COVID-19 surge begins”

MedPage Today: “The Doctor as Patient: ‘I Was Not Trying to Die'”

“A View From the Edge — Creating a Culture of Caring”

“After near-death experience, doctor calls for greater empathy with patients”

Rana Awdish co-authors an article on patient care in the Harvard Business Review

Find Dr. Awdish on Twitter and on the official Dr. Rana Awdish website

“Dr. Awdish captivated our audience with her heroic story of being a patient in her own hospital. She helped each of us understand the importance of treating each patient as a human being who deserves our full attention, compassion, and empathy. Her message is powerful. I had read In Shock previously but was still moved deeply by hearing Dr. Awdish tell her story.”

“Dr. Awdish was very well-received. She is so personable and the book signing was a big hit. In addition, her talk was phenomenal. I have never seen this audience so engaged and connected with her. It was very quiet and no one was looking at their phone or leaving early. She also received a standing ovation, and I had never seen that before as well.”

“Dr. Rana Awdish’s personal story is so incredibly powerful and moving. She captivated attendees with her art and science of storytelling, candid sharing of her healthcare experiences and her ability to connect with the audience with empathy, humor and humanism. Dr. Awdish is a true professional who graciously gave of her time and spirit to impart on our organization the importance of seeing patients as human beings and meeting them where they are in their life. Her presentation skills are flawless – seamlessly recounting her life altering experience with dignity and grace. It was an absolute honor to have Dr. Awdish at our Patient Experience event as she epitomizes how every moment matters.”

“Dr. Awdish recounts the details of her compelling critical illness, which lead her through a personal transformational journey. She captivated the audience while describing her efforts to refocus health care providers on the patient’s perspective of their care experience. She chronicles her own struggles as a physician- patient and how she engaged her colleagues to break from their historical training and truly listen to their patients and families. From there, she describes how her organization has developed training tools to help doctors learn how to better interact with patients and improve communications in a way that boosts the patient experience while also supporting physicians. Dr. Awdish’s passion for improving patients’ experience to improve patient care and physician well-being is palpable in her presentation. She is a remarkable physician and speaker.”

“When I first heard Dr. Awdish speak about her experience as a patient in our ICU I was mesmerized. Her insights into how we can do a better job, as medical professionals, with our patients is absolutely inspiring. I have been a critical care nurse for 16 years and she inspired me to change my approach with my patients and their families. To be a better nurse: to listen more, to be present, to show empathy, to see the patient not the disease, and to support, educate and advocate for my patients and their families. Dr. Awdish is truly an engaging speaker that will change the way we as medical professionals practice medicine.”

“Breathtaking, exceptional. Rana Awdish is at once a dying patient and a highly respected critical care physician. Her generosity of spirit brings laser focus to both perspectives as she lays these double lives side by side under a single microscope, impeccably weaving together the worlds of personal loss and faltering medical care. She bears the souls of both with graphic accuracy; pulling the audience into their own humanity as they feel the crushing blows of well-intended, but recklessly delivered messages; the horrifying loss of personal agency and the innate will to regain ourselves. Her keen observations as both patient and doctor are so vivid that they suck the breath out of the room. As she leads us to our own conclusion that (in medicine) ‘we can do better,’ she builds the case for restoring compassionate care and humanity to healthcare.”

“There is a transformative power as Dr. Awdish speaks from the heart about her experiences as a patient in her own Intensive Care Unit. Her survival is remarkable, as is the optimism she retains while presenting a tangible path to greater empathy in modern medicine. If you have ever felt burdened by the lack of humanity in medicine, you must experience Dr. Awdish presenting live.”

“Rana Awdish tells her story to help make all physicians better doctors. Her experiences as a critical care doctor and critically ill patient combine into a powerful lesson for all of those who hope to heal others. Dr. Awdish’s strong voice guides physicians to treat all with empathy, improving both outcomes and patient experiences.”

“[Rana’s] indomitable spirit lifts us as we hear [her] poetic storytelling on [her] remarkable journey to and from death’s edge. We can almost hear the careless insecurities spoken about [Rana] in the O.R. We can hear and feel the numbing lack of empathy during [her] crushing ultrasound moment. We are stunned by the poorly choiced words spoken to [Rana]. We are simply stunned. Despite this shock, as Dr. Awdish, states with profound optimism and simplicity, ‘We can do better.’”

“Rana Awdish’s story is powerful, emotional, and instructive. As a member of the health care community, she knows why we say the things we do, and then puts those sayings in a whole new light. She is a polished and thoughtful speaker who will keep the audience attentive the entire time she is speaking.”