Episode 32: Dr. Rana Awdish

Rana Awdish, MD, FCCP is the author of In Shock, a critically acclaimed, bestselling memoir based on her own illness. A critical care physician and faculty member of Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan, she completed her medical degree at Wayne State in 2002 where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha national medical honor society, her residency at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in New York, and her fellowship training at Henry Ford Hospital where she serves as the current Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Program. She also serves as Medical Director of Care Experience for the entire Health System. Dr. Awdish’s mandate as well as her passion is to improve the patient experience across the system and speak on patient advocacy at health care venues nationally.

After suffering a sudden critical illness, herself, she has devoted much of her career to improving empathy through connection and communication. She lectures to physicians, health care leaders and medical schools across the country. Her book has been integrated into the curriculum of medical schools and universities across the US and Europe. She was awarded the Speak-Up Hero award in 2014 for her work establishing a workshop-based program called CLEAR (Connect, Listen, Empathize, Align, Respect), which trains faculty and trainees in relationship-based communication skills utilizing improvisational actors. She was named Henry Ford Hospital’s Critical Care Teacher of the Year in 2016. She was named the National Compassionate Caregiver of the Year by The Schwartz Center as well as Physician of the Year by Press Ganey in 2017. She has been interviewed by The Times, The Telegraph, The BBC, NPR, the Today Show online, MedPage, Health Leaders Media, and Beckers Hospital Review. She has written for Harvard Business Review, the Huffington Post, as well as the New England Journal of Medicine. Her NEJM Perspectives article, A View from the Edge, went viral garnering over 120,000 views and is ranked in the 99th percentile for reach.

 

Key Words: BIPOC, Physical Disability, Sudden Critical Illness, Miscarriage, Serious Medical Complications, Psychological/ Mental Health, Distress, Emotional Burnout, Depression, Critical Care, Pulmonology, Pulmonary Hypertension, Research