Being Mortal

Dr. Annette Mendola responds to Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande in this podcast of a Books Sandwiched In program (recorded June 22, 2016). Dr. Mendola comments, "The American healthcare system has ardently pursued heroic, lifesaving technologies. It has been less invested in helping people preserve the things that matter most to them in life, such as mobility, relationships, meaningful activity, and being at home. Gawande encourages us to question the way medicine is produced and consumed, and to ask ourselves what we really want from healthcare." Dr. Mendola’s experience as a nurses’ aide during high school and later on the inpatient psychiatric floor of a small county hospital naturally led to her interest in end-of-life issues and medical ethics. Prior to her current tenure as Director of Clinical Ethics at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, she was a lecturer in the Philosophy Department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.