Gawande to speak at Florida Hospital Lecture Series

Community invited to hear renowned surgeon

Renowned surgeon and Harvard professor Dr. Atul Gawande is coming to Orlando to talk about the often delicate topics of aging and death — and to tell us why we should embrace these conversations.

In the latest installment of Florida Hospital’s Distinguished Lecture Series, Gawande will discuss how medicine can improve the process of these inevitable conditions.

In his best-selling book, “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters at the End,” he explains the ultimate goal is not a good death, but a good life — all the way to the end.

Dr. Atul Gawande

Gawande’s talk will tackle these and some of the medical field’s most challenging questions on Sept. 21 at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Learn more and RSVP here.

TIME named Gawande one of the world’s most influential thinkers, and he is recognized for his powerful articles on the state of health care in America. His books — which also include “Complications,” “Better” and “The Checklist Manifesto” — have been praised inside and outside the medical community.

In his writings, Gawande explains that medical practice and philosophy have not kept pace with the changes in health care over the last century.

Gawande is a professor in both the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health, and the Department of Surgery at the Harvard Medical School. He is chairman of Lifebox, a nonprofit dedicated to making surgery safer in low-resource countries, and executive director of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation.

The Distinguished Lecture Series, traditionally hosted at Florida Hospital Orlando, hosts renowned medical experts who cover diverse health and medical topics.