Breakfast with Hope: Reading on Health and Well-Being

Who is Hope? 

Hope Torrents is the Museum Educator and Director of the Fine Art of Healthcare program at the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami where she’s worked since 1999. In 2010 her husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Over a six-year period Jordi was in and out of the hospital 45-50 times.

Hope’s own work with The Lowe Art Museum’s Fine Art of Healthcare is one step in preparing future healthcare providers to be better observers and communicators. The goal is for them to have a more holistic view of their patients and families. Hope’s interest in creating a book club on health and well-being was in part propelled by her conviction that, with the right training, those in the medical system can improve – especially in the fields of compassion, visual acuity, de-biasing, and collaboration.

What is Hope’s Book Club? 

Hope has been facilitating discussions for the last 20 years. Now, she joins us to kick off a series of monthly discussions about her passion: health and well-being. After years of research and attending workshops at Harvard, Columbia and the University of Florida, Hope aims to tap into the interest that many of us have about our own health and well-being, and share her knowledge with our community. Join Hope at Books & Books in Coral Gables each month for fun and inspiring Book Discussions + Breakfast!  

Please Note: Breakfast and discussion will begin at 8am sharp and will wrap up by 9am so that you still have time to get to the office, or wherever you’re going.  

THIS MONTH: Hope will be discussing Dr. Danielle Ofri’s WHAT PATIENTS SAY, WHAT DOCTORS HEAR (Beacon Press, $16). 

Can refocusing conversations between doctors and their patients lead to better health? Despite modern medicine’s infatuation with high-tech gadgetry, the single most powerful diagnostic tool is the doctor-patient conversation, which can uncover the lion’s share of illnesses. However, what patients say and what doctors hear are often two vastly different things.

Patients, anxious to convey their symptoms, feel an urgency to “make their case” to their doctors. Doctors, under pressure to be efficient, multitask while patients speak and often miss the key elements. Add in stereotypes, unconscious bias, conflicting agendas, and fear of lawsuits and the risk of misdiagnosis and medical errors multiplies dangerously.

Though the gulf between what patients say and what doctors hear is often wide, Dr. Danielle Ofri proves that it doesn’t have to be. Through the powerfully resonant human stories that Dr. Ofri’s writing is renowned for, she explores the high-stakes world of doctor-patient communication that we all must navigate. Reporting on the latest research studies and interviewing scholars, doctors, and patients, Dr. Ofri reveals how better communication can lead to better health for all of us.

Members take 20% off their purchase!

Presented in collaboration with 

 The Café at Books & Books