This chapter profiles Dr. Pauline Chen, a transplant surgeon whose writing challenged medicine’s dysfunctional relationship with death. Born in 1964 to Taiwanese immigrant parents, she graduated from The Loomis Chaffee School (1982) before attending Harvard University and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine (Penguin Random House, Pauline W. Chen. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/74324/pauline-w-chen/ , n.d.; The Loomis Chaffee School, Pauline Chen ‘82, trustee and chair of the Diversity Task Force. https://www.loomischaffee.org/cf_news/view.cfm?newsid=4026 , n.d.; Thompson, Cutting to the core. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2007/01/29/cutting-to-the-core-span-classbankheadsurgeons-are-taught-to-view-death-coldly/2eaee71b-cc14-4379-a253-e998bab8c028/ , 2007, January 29). She completed surgical training at Yale University, the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health, and UCLA, where she was appointed faculty specializing in liver and kidney transplants and the treatment of cancer (Penguin Random House, Pauline W. Chen. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/74324/pauline-w-chen/ , n.d.; The Loomis Chaffee School, Pauline Chen ‘82, trustee and chair of the Diversity Task Force. https://www.loomischaffee.org/cf_news/view.cfm?newsid=4026 , n.d.; PRH Speakers Bureau, Pauline Chen, M.D.: Healthcare & medicine author, speaker. https://www.prhspeakers.com/speaker/pauline-chen , n.d.). Her landmark memoir, “Final Exam: A Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality” (Alfred A. Knopf, 2007) became a New York Times bestseller and was named one of the year’s ten best books by New York Times critics, translated into nearly a dozen languages (Chen, Final exam: a surgeon’s reflections on mortality. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2007; Amazon, Final Exam: a surgeon’s reflections on mortality. https://www.amazon.com/Final-Exam-Surgeons-Reflections-Mortality/dp/030727537X , n.d.; New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute (NJHCQI), Pauline Chen. https://www.njhcqi.org/medicaid-policy-center-old/paulinechen/ , n.d.). The book was a finalist for the Books for a Better Life Award (New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute (NJHCQI), Pauline Chen. https://www.njhcqi.org/medicaid-policy-center-old/paulinechen/ , n.d.). It examined how medical training systematically fails to prepare physicians for end-of-life care, arguing that death represents not medical failure but medicine’s “final exam.” She authored the “Doctor and Patient” column for The New York Times, reaching millions with insights on healthcare delivery and physician-patient relationships (PRH Speakers Bureau, Pauline Chen, M.D.: Healthcare & medicine author, speaker. https://www.prhspeakers.com/speaker/pauline-chen , n.d.). Her essay, “Dead Enough? The Paradox of Brain Death,” published in The Virginia Quarterly Review (Fall 2005), was a finalist for a 2006 National Magazine Award (Penguin Random House, Pauline W. Chen. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/74324/pauline-w-chen/ , n.d.; Virginia Quarterly Review, Pauline W. Chen. https://www.vqronline.org/people/pauline-w-chen , n.d.). Dr. Chen received the UCLA Outstanding Physician of the Year Award (1999) and Yale’s George Longstreth Humanness Award during training, given for “most exemplifying empathy, kindness, and care in an age of advancing technology (Penguin Random House, Pauline W. Chen. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/74324/pauline-w-chen/ , n.d.; Virginia Quarterly Review, Pauline W. Chen. https://www.vqronline.org/people/pauline-w-chen , n.d.).” She received the Betsy Winters House Staff Teaching Award at Yale (Harvard University Ackerman Symposium, Self & non-self: a transplant surgeon and the medical humanities. https://ackerman.harvard.edu/event/2008-ackerman-symposium-medicine-and-culture-self-non-self-transplant-surgeon , n.d.). Dr. Chen has also received the Chinese American Medical Society Distinguished Community Service Award and the Olga Jonasson Distinguished Member Award from the Association of Women Surgeons, in her illustrious career (New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute (NJHCQI), Pauline Chen. https://www.njhcqi.org/medicaid-policy-center-old/paulinechen/ , n.d.).

Pauline Chen, MD

章节
发表日期：

2026年

查看全文

Ogochukwu M. Cox

摘要

This chapter profiles Dr. Pauline Chen, a transplant surgeon whose writing challenged medicine’s dysfunctional relationship with death. Born in 1964 to Taiwanese immigrant parents, she graduated from The Loomis Chaffee School (1982) before attending Harvard University and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine (Penguin Random House, Pauline W. Chen. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/74324/pauline-w-chen/ , n.d.; The Loomis Chaffee School, Pauline Chen ‘82, trustee and chair of the Diversity Task Force. https://www.loomischaffee.org/cf_news/view.cfm?newsid=4026 , n.d.; Thompson, Cutting to the core. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2007/01/29/cutting-to-the-core-span-classbankheadsurgeons-are-taught-to-view-death-coldly/2eaee71b-cc14-4379-a253-e998bab8c028/ , 2007, January 29). She completed surgical training at Yale University, the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health, and UCLA, where she was appointed faculty specializing in liver and kidney transplants and the treatment of cancer (Penguin Random House, Pauline W. Chen. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/74324/pauline-w-chen/ , n.d.; The Loomis Chaffee School, Pauline Chen ‘82, trustee and chair of the Diversity Task Force. https://www.loomischaffee.org/cf_news/view.cfm?newsid=4026 , n.d.; PRH Speakers Bureau, Pauline Chen, M.D.: Healthcare & medicine author, speaker. https://www.prhspeakers.com/speaker/pauline-chen , n.d.). Her landmark memoir, “Final Exam: A Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality” (Alfred A. Knopf, 2007) became a New York Times bestseller and was named one of the year’s ten best books by New York Times critics, translated into nearly a dozen languages (Chen, Final exam: a surgeon’s reflections on mortality. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2007; Amazon, Final Exam: a surgeon’s reflections on mortality. https://www.amazon.com/Final-Exam-Surgeons-Reflections-Mortality/dp/030727537X , n.d.; New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute (NJHCQI), Pauline Chen. https://www.njhcqi.org/medicaid-policy-center-old/paulinechen/ , n.d.). The book was a finalist for the Books for a Better Life Award (New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute (NJHCQI), Pauline Chen. https://www.njhcqi.org/medicaid-policy-center-old/paulinechen/ , n.d.). It examined how medical training systematically fails to prepare physicians for end-of-life care, arguing that death represents not medical failure but medicine’s “final exam.” She authored the “Doctor and Patient” column for The New York Times, reaching millions with insights on healthcare delivery and physician-patient relationships (PRH Speakers Bureau, Pauline Chen, M.D.: Healthcare & medicine author, speaker. https://www.prhspeakers.com/speaker/pauline-chen , n.d.). Her essay, “Dead Enough? The Paradox of Brain Death,” published in The Virginia Quarterly Review (Fall 2005), was a finalist for a 2006 National Magazine Award (Penguin Random House, Pauline W. Chen. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/74324/pauline-w-chen/ , n.d.; Virginia Quarterly Review, Pauline W. Chen. https://www.vqronline.org/people/pauline-w-chen , n.d.). Dr. Chen received the UCLA Outstanding Physician of the Year Award (1999) and Yale’s George Longstreth Humanness Award during training, given for “most exemplifying empathy, kindness, and care in an age of advancing technology (Penguin Random House, Pauline W. Chen. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/74324/pauline-w-chen/ , n.d.; Virginia Quarterly Review, Pauline W. Chen. https://www.vqronline.org/people/pauline-w-chen , n.d.).” She received the Betsy Winters House Staff Teaching Award at Yale (Harvard University Ackerman Symposium, Self & non-self: a transplant surgeon and the medical humanities. https://ackerman.harvard.edu/event/2008-ackerman-symposium-medicine-and-culture-self-non-self-transplant-surgeon , n.d.). Dr. Chen has also received the Chinese American Medical Society Distinguished Community Service Award and the Olga Jonasson Distinguished Member Award from the Association of Women Surgeons, in her illustrious career (New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute (NJHCQI), Pauline Chen. https://www.njhcqi.org/medicaid-policy-center-old/paulinechen/ , n.d.).