MacArthur Fellows on National Doctors’ Day
Today is National Doctors’ Day!
As COVID-19 (commonly known as coronavirus) accelerates its spread all over the world, we celebrate the doctors who are caring for people during the outbreak.
We also recognize all kinds of physicians who have made advancements and delivered care that has helped, and continues to help, people in every corner of the world facing a number of medical challenges.
We found these quotes from just a few remarkable MacArthur Fellows who are doctors. They are developing scientific breakthroughs, creating new frameworks for understanding medical challenges, and helping to improve the lives of people.
Which ones inspire you?
Therapy is “an opportunity for us to educate [victims of violence] about these wounds of trauma. And by addressing the wounds of trauma, we can make a difference.”–John Rich, Physician
“The health profession is traditionally hierarchical. Often physicians are perceived to be at the very top of the hierarchy…thanks to HIV, this framework has been re-examined. In a very concrete way, we as a team needed to sit around the table and discuss each individual patient in terms of their health and more broadly in terms of their overall life.”–Wafaa El-Sadr, Infectious Disease Physician
“We’re not just delivering something to an underprivileged part of the world. Global health and global surgery is really a two-way street.”–Benjamin Warf, Pedriatric Neurosurgeon
“Very few people want to die, particularly if they have a quality of life that’s acceptable to them. Life is precious, and sweet, and my job as a physician is to help my patients get as much of that good quality life as they can.”–Diane Meier, Geriatrician
“We can’t look at health in isolation. It’s not just in the doctor’s office. It’s got to be where we live, we work, we play, we pray. If you have a healthy community, you have a healthy individual.”–Regina Benjamin, Rural Family Physician
“Far too many people suffer preventable harm, cost and suffering in healthcare, and that need not happen. But we haven’t put evidence into practice to the extent that we need to.”–Peter Pronovost, Critical Care Physician
“I developed, perhaps, a solidarity with the people [in South Sudan], trying to make things work, make their health care system a nice one rather than only rich people getting health care and poor people sitting on the steps to starve…You make a commitment to a group of people, and we work together.”–Jill Seaman, Infectious Disease Physician
“The unfairness of the health system is inseparable from the unfairness of the economy — an unfairness measured not only in dollars but in deaths. The blighted prospects of the less educated are a public-health crisis, and, as the number of victims [of the coronavirus outbreak] mounts, it will be harder to ignore.” –Atul Gawande, Surgeon and Author
Bonus content: Check out how other MacArthur Fellows have reacted to the coronavirus outbreak, and MacArthur Fellow Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist, on how to help stop the spread of infectious diseases like coronavirus.
Learn more about how the MacArthur Foundation is responding to the COVID-19 outbreak and supporting nonprofits during the pandemic. We have also shared guidance that we have provided with regard to COVID-19 to protect the well-being of our staff, visitors to the Foundation, and people participating in MacArthur convenings. You can also review updates on the CDC website for more general information regarding the situation.
