In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Laura Vater,  board certified Gastrointestinal Oncologist at Indiana University Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center and physician advocate. She shares her journey into medicine, how she started writing, and became a physician advocate at all levels of medical education.

Dr. Vater is board certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine. She is also the founding director of the Young-Onset Colorectal and Gastrointestinal Cancer Program at IU and co-founder of the narrative medicine program, Writing for Wellness. She was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society in 2018 and is a member of the Pegasus Physician Writers at Stanford University. She has developed a wellness behavior tool for patients and clinicians (called the SMILE Scale) and has published several narrative medicine essays and peer-reviewed publications. Besides being a writer, Dr. Vaah-ter is a TEDx and commencement speaker, mother, and advocate for patients and healthcare workers. She believes that patients should be treated as whole human beings and that clinicians deserve the same.

We explore the topics of humanism in medicine, compassion, the importance of physician wellness and mental health, burnout in healthcare, and the nuances of medical care both in the clinic and at the institutional level.

For further reference follow Dr. Laura Vater on Instagram @doclauravater and at https://www.lauravater.com/. 

Episode produced by: Nikita Ganeshan

Episode recording date: 11/15/2024

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