Recent Dimensions Presenters
Dimensions is a purposeful academic enrichment program which helps creatively prepare our students for successful careers in a variety of health professions. These enrichment opportunities include workshops, seminars and classroom lectures by distinguished campus visitors.
“Singular Intimacies:Using Literature to Bridge the Cultural Gap” public lecture by Danielle Ofri
Ofri is a physician and teacher at Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the United States. In her practice and as an assistant professor of medicine at New York University, Ofri has focused on reaching the real humanity of her patients and on teaching young doctors how to do the same. She is also the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Bellevue Literary Journal, the first literary journal published by a hospital. The journal publishes essays, fiction, and poetry about patients as people and the art of healing. She has also written a medical memoir entitled, Incidental Findings.
“The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care” public lecture by T.R. Reid.
T. R. Reid has become one of the nation’s best-known reporters through his coverage of global affairs for The Washington Post, his books and documentary films, and his light-hearted commentaries on National Public Radio, including “Morning Edition”. In his global quest to find a possible prescription for our ailing healthcare system, Reid visited wealthy industrialized free-market democracies like our own, finding inspiration in example. Reid shares evidence from doctors, government officials, health care experts, and patients the world over, finding that foreign health care systems often provide more choice and shorter waiting times than the United States. He raises the poignant question, “Should health care be a human right?”
"Humor and Health” a public lecture by Patch Adams
Adams is a doctor, clown, and social activist, as well as the founder of the Gesundheit Institute, a holistic medical community that has provided free health care to thousands of patients since 1971. He is also the author of Gesundheit and Housecalls and the inspiration for the hit movie, Patch Adams. His presentation to the Cornell campus examined the relationship between humor and the health of the individual, community or society and the practice of medicine for fun, not for funds.
“The God Gene”, a public lecture by Dean Hamer
The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into our Genes is a provocative book that argues religious belief is a product of DNA. Hamer explained the combination of behavioral genetic, neurobiological and psychological studies upon which the God-gene hypothesis is based.
"On the Mend, Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry" by Dr. John Toussaint
John Toussaint (’78), MD, is CEO emeritus of ThedaCare and CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value in Appleton, Wisconsin. Dr. Toussaint’s work using Toyota Production System principles shows how fundamental healthcare improvements can be made at the point of delivery using the proven principles of lean management. He has written two books highlighting the core elements necessary to transform healthcare and enhance patient value: delivery of care designed around the patient, transparency of treatment quality and cost and payment for outcomes.
Please refer to our workshops and seminars page for information on additional Dimensions-sponsored programming.