Lisa Schwartz, an Obituary
New York Times obituaries have been an important source of information for me over the years. The writings of Jiddu Krishnamurti, an Indian philosopher and teacher, have provided me with a new way of looking at the world after I learned about him and his work in a NYT obituary. I discovered that the proprietor of a small Scottish country inn, a laird whose family had been local nobility for centuries and who kindly gave me some of the scotch whiskey he had distilled, then taught me the correct way to drink and enjoy its flavor, was the model for James Bond because of his daring WW II feats as a spy. The Times did some soul searching this past year as more and more stories of abuse of women surfaced. They concluded that women who had accomplished significant things had often been ignored in their obituaries section ever since the paper was established. Recently an amazing woman who died in 2017 was honored with a long obituary.
Lisa Schwartz was a professor of medicine who, with her husband, was co-director of the Center for Medicine and Media at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, part of Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine. There they trained hundreds of journalists to become more skeptical about claimed scientific breakthroughs and miracle cures, and to better communicate the benefits and risks of medical tests and treatment. They concluded that medicine has become a huge business where the dominant people, physicians, are well trained in procedures and prescribing but not in appropriateness, side effects and alternatives, especially lifestyle medicine. Her work was endorsed and supported by the NIH and other authorities.
A link to her obituary:
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