“In America, we have always taken it as an article of faith that we 'battle' cancer; we attack it with knives, we poison it with chemotherapy or we blast it with radiation. If we are fortunate, we 'beat' the cancer. If not, we are posthumously praised for having 'succumbed after a long battle.'”

American physician and author

Abraham Verghese is an American physician and author. He is the Linda R. Meier and Joan F. Lane Provostial Professor of Medicine at Stanford Medical School, where he also serves as Vice Chair for the Theory and Practice of Medicine and Internal Medicine Clerkship Director. He is the author of four best-selling books, including two memoirs and two novels. He also co-hosts the Medscape podcast Medicine and the Machine with Eric Topol, reflecting his ongoing interest in medicine, teaching, and the place of technology in clinical care.