Lidia Schapira | From Consultation Room to Medical Memoir

In this talk, Dr. Schapira will share her perspective on the value and importance of personal essays written by patients and physicians, before reading excerpts from her memoir. The main theme of her book is the centrality and power of the therapeutic alliance between a patient with incurable cancer and her oncologist. The author memorializes her patient, an anthropologist who died of metastatic breast cancer in 2000, when she was 38 years old, and reflects on the lessons she learned from this experience, and how they influenced her teaching, research and practice. 

About the Speaker

Dr. Schapira is a medical oncologist with clinical expertise in the treatment of breast cancer. As the inaugural Director of Stanford's Cancer Survivorship Program, she has developed a thriving research and clinical program focused on optimizing health outcomes for people living with and beyond cancer. Dr. Schapira is interested in training future generations of physician-scientists as well as the broader community of practicing physicians through the design of innovative educational programs. Dr. Schapira's advocacy for people with cancer led to her appointment as Editor-in-Chief of the American Society of Clinical Oncology's website for the public,Cancer.Net, a position she held from 2015 until 2021. She served on the Board of Directors of the American Psychosocial Oncology Society and as Chair of the Psychosocial Interest Group of the Multinational Society for Supportive Care in Cancer. Dr. Schapira is particularly committed to reducing inequities in cancer outcomes and improving access to cancer care and cancer clinical trials. Dr. Schapira has published numerous manuscripts, lectures both nationally and internationally on issues of cancer survivorship, and serves as Associate Editor of the narrative section, Art of Oncology, for the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
 

The Medical Humanities Research Workshop is sponsored by the Stanford Humanities Center. The series is made possible by support from Linda Randall Meier, the Mellon Foundation, & the National Endowment for the Humanities. Please register in advance to receive a link to this hybrid event. Please email Bilal Nadeem (bnadeem@stanford.edu) with any questions.