2024 George M. Engel, MD Memorial Lecture presented by Benzi Kluger, MD, MS

Oct 2, 2024 | 1:03:26

Video Description: “On souls, service, and society: Extending the Biopsychosocial Model to fully support people living with life-limiting illness.

In this talk, Kluger will draw upon his experiences working with patients and family affected by neurologic illness to describe an extended biopsychosocial model designed to improve clinical care, education, research, and systems of support. At the center of this model, we must answer the fundamental questions: “Who is this person in front of me?”, “What parts of them exist beyond the reach of illness?”, and “Who am I to be able to see and support these most intimate aspects of being?” Moving out, we discuss the types of relationships and caring that address suffering, support healing, and foster love, joy, and meaning. Lastly, at the periphery, we come to the questions of how we can change culture and challenge systems to provide better care. To do so will require the work of transdisciplinary teams implementing the inner layers of this model through systems approaches, an endeavor that stands to improve not only the care of individuals with serious illness, but the healing of society.”