After being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in 2011, journalist Mary Elizabeth Williams signed up for a phase 1 clinical trial before she even fully understood what one was. Now cancer-free but a permanent research subject, she’s seen the landscape of research and treatment shift dramatically over the years — for better and worse. In this candid and personal conversation, Williams will reveal why her revolutionary clinical trial would not have been the groundbreaking triumph it became without the compassion at its heart, and explore the troubling new obstacles to patient protection, the sticky ethical questions that arise from partisanship and progress, and why, in the age of AI, healthcare needs a human touch more than ever.
Keywords: Storytelling, narrative medicine, clinical research, cancer research
Learning Objectives:
After participating in this conference, attendees should be able to:
Understand the chronic experience of being a patient long after treatment has officially ended
Recognize the different learning styles that patients bring to treatment (and in particular informed consent)
Refine one of the most powerful tools in any healthcare scenario — active listening
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