Abraham Verghese

Abraham Verghese, born on May 30, 1955, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is an Ethiopian-American physician and author of Malayali descent. His parents were teachers from Kerala, India. From an early age, Verghese was an avid reader, which sparked his interest in medicine. His medical training began in Ethiopia but was interrupted in 1974 due to civil unrest. He subsequently moved to the United States and worked as a hospital orderly, an experience he credits with solidifying his commitment to medicine. He completed his medical studies at Madras Medical College in India, earning his MBBS degree in 1979.

Returning to the U.S., Verghese completed his residency at a program affiliated with East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. Following a fellowship at Boston University School of Medicine, he worked at Boston City Hospital where he observed the initial stages of the urban HIV epidemic. In 1985, he returned to Johnson City as an assistant professor, where he encountered a significant rural AIDS epidemic. This profound experience motivated him to document the human stories behind the medical crisis, leading him to pursue writing. After studying at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he published his first book, “My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story,” in 1994, which gained critical acclaim and was adapted into a television movie in 1998.

Verghese’s career evolved to combine his medical practice with his literary pursuits. In 1991, he became Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center in El Paso, Texas. He later founded The Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Since 2007, he has served as a tenured professor for the Theory and Practice of Medicine and Associate Chair of Internal Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is also the founder and director of the “Presence” program at Stanford, which champions the human experience in medicine. His commitment to the patient-physician relationship and the importance of the physical exam has influenced medical education.