Doctor, Will You Pray for Me? Chaplains and Healing the Whole Person

The lecture will begin will begin at 4:00pm in HHS 301.

Zoom link for remote attendance: https://columbiacuimc.zoom.us/j/98286753954

About the Talk

Based on in-depth research, this talk explores how patients today from varied backgrounds—from evangelical to atheist, agnostic, and "nothing in particular"—confront spiritual, existential, and religious challenges, and how hospital chaplains often help. These spiritual care providers play critical roles assisting patients, families, and staff, but knowledge about them and how they assist patients remains relatively low. This talk presents the profound insights they have to share.

About the Speaker

Robert Klitzman, MD, is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Joseph Mailman School of Public Health, and the Director of the Online and In-person Bioethics Masters and Certificate Programs at Columbia University. He has written over 190 scientific journal articles, ten books, and numerous chapters on critical issues in bioethics regarding doctor-patient relationships and communication, research, genetics, mental health, pandemics, and other areas. His books include Doctor, Will You Pray for Me?: Medicine, Chaplains and Healing the Whole Person, The Ethics Police?: The Struggle to Make Human Research Safe, When Doctors Become Patients, Am I My Genes? Confronting Fate and Family Secrets in the Age of Genetic Testing, Designing Babies: How Technology Is Changing How We Have Children, A Year-Long Night: Tales of a Medical Internship, In a House of Dreams and Glass: Becoming a Psychiatrist, The Trembling Mountain: A Personal Account of Kuru, Cannibals and Mad Cow Disease, Being Positive: The Lives of Men and Women With HIV, and Mortal Secrets: Truth and Lies in the Age of AIDS.

Klitzman has received numerous awards for his work, including fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, the Aaron Diamond Foundation, the Hastings Center, and the Rockefeller Foundation. He has been a gubernatorial appointee to the Empire State Stem Cell Commission, and the Ethics Working Group of the HIV Prevention Trials Network, and served on the U.S. Department of Defense's Research Ethics Advisory Panel. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a regular contributor to The New York Times, CNN, and Psychology Today.

Please email ethics@cumc.columbia.edu if you have any questions or concerns. More details about Columbia's Center for Clinical Medical Ethics can be found on our website.