Dr. Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal, shares his vision of healthcare that helps people live well to the end.

Surgeon, writer, and public health leader Dr. Atul Gawande sat down for a conversation with HDS Dean David N. Hempton on Sept. 6, 2018, as part of the 99th Ingersoll Lecture on Immortality during HDS's 203rd Convocation ceremony in September. Gawande, MD, MPH, is CEO of the non-profit-seeking health care venture formed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase to deliver better outcomes, satisfaction, and cost efficiency in care. He is author of the bestselling book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. He practices general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is a professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Samuel O. Thier Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at http://hds.harvard.edu/.

Surgeon, public health researcher, and MacArthur fellow Atul Gawande discusses his #1 NY Times bestseller, "Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End." Modern medicine has transformed the dangers of birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But when it comes to the inescapable realities of aging and death, what medicine can do often runs counter to what it should do. Through eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Gawande reveals the suffering produced by medicine’s neglect of the wishes people might have beyond mere survival. To find out what those wishes are, we need to ask. We haven’t been asking, but we can learn. Riveting, honest, and humane, this remarkable book, which has already changed the national conversation on aging and death, shows how the ultimate goal is not a good death but a good life—all the way to the very end. Get the book here: https://goo.gl/AU2BCb Moderated by Tom Smith.