Gaudet To Give NCCIH Straus Lecture
“What really matters to you in your life? What brings you a sense of joy and happiness?”
These are questions that we don’t typically hear in our current health care system, says Dr. Tracy Gaudet, who will deliver NCCIH’s upcoming Stephen E. Straus Distinguished Lecture in the Science of Complementary Therapies. And they’re at the center of a new initiative Gaudet has led since 2011 at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to deliver personalized, proactive and patient-centered care to our veterans.
Gaudet, inaugural executive director of the VA’s Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation, will speak on “Transforming Veterans’ Health: Implementing a Whole Health System of Care” on Thursday, Nov. 29 at 10 a.m. in Lipsett Amphitheater, Bldg. 10, and on videocast. NCCIH’s annual lecture honors the center’s founding director.
The “Whole Health System” was developed at the VA and initially deployed at 18 flagship facilities. It includes not only conventional treatment but also patient empowerment; a personalized plan for health and well-being; self-care; skill building; and complementary and integrative modalities.
A key concept is to empower and equip people to take charge of their health and well-being and to live their lives to the fullest, based on their own goals and priorities. The system also provides opportunities for health services research.
Gaudet, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, is author of two books on women’s health and has been featured in The New Medicine on PBS, as a “Game Changer” in Fortune and as one of the “Top 25 Women in Healthcare” in Modern Healthcare. Previously, she was director of Duke Integrative Medicine, in Durham, N.C.
Her lecture is supported by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health with a gift from Bernard and Barbro Osher. More information is at https://nccih.nih.gov/news/events/lectures.