Dr. Kristin M. Collier on the Importance of Recognizing the Patient as a “Person”
Medicine and healthcare have become one of the most contentious sectors of modern society. Doctors have greater scientific knowledge with which to help patients than at any time in history. But at the same time, the field seems to be heading in a more crassly technocratic direction, in which the human being seeking care may become lost in the attempt to heal the patient’s bodily systems.
One doctor is working to return medicine to its more humane roots. Kristin M. Collier, MD, FACP is an associate professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she serves as the director of the University of Michigan Medical School Program on Health, Spirituality and Religion. She is also an associate program director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at the University of Michigan where she oversees the primary care track.
Dr. Collier received her medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School and completed her internship, residency, and chief residency at the University of Michigan Hospitals. Her academic interests are in the overlap of spirituality, religion and medicine and her peer-reviewed work has been published in high-impact journals such as JAMA Internal Medicine, the Annals of Internal Medicine, and the British Medical Journal. She also has had writings published in Notre Dame’s Church Life Journal, Theopolis, America Magazine, and Public Discourse.
She is also a wife and the proud mother of four sons.
Related Resources
- Program on Health, Spirituality and Religion | University of Michigan Medical School
- Moral Diversity for Medical Trainees | PubMed
- The Meaning of Medicine: Dr. Kristin Collier’s Speech at the University of Michigan Medical School | Public Discourse
- What is medicine for? | BMJ Leader
- Is It Time to More Fully Address Teaching Religion and Spirituality in Medicine? | PubMed
- The Role of Spirituality and Religion in Physician and Trainee Wellness | PubMed
- The Dark Kenosis of Medical Education | Public Discourse
- “Physician Assisted Suicide/MAiD, Dignity, Autonomy,” Profs. Margaret Battin and Kristin Collier | YouTube
- “Medicine and accepting the difficult truths” | The Pillar