Professor of Humanities and Medicine
Physician and Bioethicist
Chair of the Hospital Ethics Committee
Director of the Program in Bioethics
Currently Dr. Green is Professor in the Departments of Humanities and Internal Medicine, where he cares for patients, teaches medical students and residents, and conducts research in bioethics.
He has published numerous articles and received grant awards for his research, which most recently focused on helping patients make informed decisions. Dr. Green is co-creator of “Making Your Wishes Known” an interactive computer-based decision aid that helps individuals better prepare to make medical decisions when they can no longer speak for themselves.
He also pioneers the field of “Graphic Medicine” having co-organized international conferences on Comics and Medicine. For the past several years, has taught a course on the topic to 4th-year medical students at Hershey.
Fun Fact:
“I like bugs. In fact, when I was young and catching bugs in the fields near my house, I actually thought I would grow up to be an entomologist.”
Q&A:
What was your most inspiring professional moment?
“Most inspiring professional moment? A lot of experiences come to mind but what really gets me excited is when I see a little light bulb go off in the minds of others. Everybody has their own inner dialogue going on about how they make connections to their own interests. When I can find somebody who maybe wasn’t interested in a medical topic and then becomes interested in a way that they weren’t before – that really does excite me.
A rewarding part of the job is when I can help individuals further their own work – I really enjoy mentoring junior faculty, students, and residents. As they achieve their goals, I find that really inspiring. It builds a community of others who are doing similar work.
I think we can manage to have lots of different communities here at Penn State come together and collaborate through the Department of Humanities. We have individuals who would not necessarily join together to work toward similar sorts of projects because the paths they are pursuing are so different. But when that happens, it can be really magical.
One of the creative educational pieces I enjoy is teaching a course on Comics and Medicine to medical students. I’ve also been telling my own stories through my own comics. I had a student in the class who graduated and went on to his residency program and intensive care rotation in a critical care environment. During this time, one of the stories that I had written was published in Annals of Internal Medicine. It was a story about a mistake I made when I was a resident. I missed an important diagnosis – everybody missed it – and the patient ended up dying.
When we didn’t make the correct diagnosis, it always haunted me for many years. I wrote about that and created a reflective comic about it. My former student, the resident on rounds in the intensive care unit, was with the head of his unit. They ended up seeing a patient who was somewhat similar to the patient that I described in this comic.
The doctor pulled my comic out of his pocket and showed it to the resident to use as an example. He said, “How do you know that you have the right diagnosis? Maybe you’ve got the wrong one. Sometimes if you think this way, it’s a mistake.”
The resident told the doctor, “I know the guy who wrote that! I took his class and I wrote my own story!”
When he communicated all this to me, I thought it’s the best possible example of how this kind of work can resonate with others, in ways that are sort of unimaginable. The resident didn’t realize until that moment what an impact a class on Comics and Medicine would be relevant to his practice.
This story made me realize that we have the impact not just in the classroom with the few students we have to take the class at that moment but it extends far beyond that, even to intensive care units in hospitals around the country. So that was very gratifying for me.”
How did you choose both medicine and the humanities?
“Depending on your point of view I’m either indecisive or very focused. I have always been interested in both humanities and sciences. In fact, recently reflecting on this when I was revisiting my medical school application just thinking about that. At the time, when I applied to medical school, I was really torn between going to medical school or going to graduate school in philosophy and education. I was quite interested in doing both. I ended up studying a joint program.
I remember when I applied to medical school, I wrote an essay about why I wanted to be a doctor. I wrote that I was interested in bridging the gaps between the sciences and humanities. My role in the medical world is bridging that gap and working in both worlds. That was something that I thought about really quite early and then, again, many years later.
I had the opportunity to come to Hershey. It’s as if this job is tailor-made for me. The job description was that they were looking for somebody who works in both medicine and the humanities. It was the same thing I said I wanted to do when I applied to medical school the first place.
This was not really a departure from what I had hoped to do. It is exactly what I hoped to do.
It was a job waiting for me. So as to why – I think that being a physician is really complex. You have to combine skills in the sciences and also in in the arts and in the humanities. A broadly educated individual in the role of healer is important because it helps with communication and helps people understand the perspectives of others in a more sophisticated way. The social factors that influence people‘s health employ a scientific element. There is a reductionist kind of basic science. Chemical reactions go on in the body and the mind. While all that is true, it’s a little too simplistic. It’s only part of the story and if you really want understand the full story, you have to have a better appreciation of a broader perspective of health, illness and what affects people’s health and well-being.
In the humanities, we help people understand a broader view of health.”
Education:
MD, University of Illinois College of Medicine, 1988
MS, University of Illinois, 1987
Internship, Northwestern University, Evanston Hospital
Residency, Northwestern University, Evanston Hospital, 1992
Fellowship, University of Chicago-Pritzker School of Medicine (Clinical Medical Ethics), 1993
Fellowship, University of Wisconsin (General Internal Medicine), 1995
More about Dr. Green:
Books written by Dr. Green
Graphic Medicine Manifesto
Breaking the Cycle
Making Your Wishes Known website
Current CV
Penn State Profiles