Lisa Rosenbaum: Finding the Thread

When I first started reading Lisa Rosenbaum’s work in the New England Journal of Medicine a few years ago, I felt I had discovered the voice I’d been searching for since starting my medical career.

At once evidence-based and deeply human, Lisa’s reportage on topics such as vaccine hesitancy, the war on science, or the Covid pandemic provided something I craved, which was to see the medical world explained and exposed in a way that questioned and transcended the assumptions and dogma that so often govern it.

Lisa isn’t just a critic though.

She has a deep love of medicine and as you’ll hear she believes in its potential for good.

She is, however, lucid about its shortcomings, and her skill as a writer allows her to approach even the most controversial topics with nuance, sensitivity, and intelligence.

She is, to my mind, one of the very best physician-writers working today.

In addition to her regular written contributions, Lisa recently launched a podcast with the Journal called Not Otherwise Specified, in which she interviews leading thinkers in medicine about their work.

Dr. Lisa Rosenbaum is a national correspondent for the New England Journal of Medicine, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and practicing cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Lisa completed medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, did an Internal Medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Cardiology fellowship at New York Presbyterian Hospital Weill-Cornell.

She spent a third year of fellowship at the New England Journal of Medicine and was also a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar.

Lisa and I spoke about her dual career as a writer and physician, the longstanding, in some ways inherited importance of writing and storytelling in her life, the state of US healthcare and the future of medical work.

This was a special conversation for me – an opportunity to speak with one of my role models – and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. ***Links:Not Otherwise Specified PodcastLisa's Writing @ NEJM***Recorded March 29th, 2023Music: Mr. SmithArt: Jeff Landmanwww.practicingpod.comTwitter: @practicingpodInstagram/Threads: practicingpodLinkedIn: Practicing Podcast