ATTENDING

For readers of Atul Gawande, Jerome Groopman, and Pauline Chen, a groundbreaking, insightful narrative about how practicing mindfulness can help doctors improve care and empower patients to get the most from their doctors, from the Harvard medical school-trained leading authority on mindfulness and medicine.

As a third-year medical student doing a clinical rotation in surgery, Ron Epstein watched as an experienced surgeon, so focused on a complicated procedure, failed to notice his patient’s kidney was turning blue. In that same rotation, Epstein assisted another surgeon whose ability to slow down and shift between auto-pilot and intentionality left the young doctor awestruck. The difference between these two supervisors left a lasting impression on Epstein and set the stage for his life’s work--to identify the qualities and habits that distinguish masterful doctors from those who are merely competent. The secret, he learned, was often mindfulness.

Grounded in decades of research and clinical experience, Attending introduces a revolutionary concept: that by practicing mindfulness, clinicians can promote more effective, safer, patient-centered medicine. Like Atul Gawande and Jerome Groopman Pauline Chen, Dr. Epstein tells gripping, human stories in order to plumb the cognitive and emotional lives of doctors and patients to show how self-awareness, attentive observation and curiosity are vital to confronting the challenges of medicine and improving care. Attending is at once a road map for doctors to reboot and reframe their approach to medicine and a benchmark for patients looking to get the most out of their medical care.

Dr. Epstein is a Professor of Family Medicine, Psychiatry, Oncology and Nursing at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, where he directs Mindful Practice programs, the Center for Communication and Disparities Research, and the Dean’s Teaching Fellowship program. His landmark article, “Mindful Practice”, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1999, has been widely cited and is required reading at over 1/3 of medical schools in the USA. His current research is supported by $7 million in grants from the NIH. He is a two-time Fulbright scholar and has given over 300 presentations at over 100 medical schools, health systems and conferences throughout the world. Dr. Epstein has been named one of America’s Best Doctors since 1998 by US News and World Report and has received distinguished service and humanism awards from the University of Rochester, New York State Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Family Physicians.