Ofri, Danielle

views updated

OFRI, Danielle

PERSONAL: Born in New York, NY; married; children: two. Education: Graduated from McGill University; New York University Medical Center, M.D., 1993, Ph.D., 1993. Hobbies and other interests: Modern dance.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY. Offıce—Bellevue Literary Review, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY, 10016; Bellevue Medical Clinic, 462 First Avenue, New York, NY, 10016. E-mail—author@DanielleOfri. com; ofri01@popmail.med.nyu.edu.

CAREER: Physician, educator, editor, and writer. Bellevue Hospital, New York, NY, attending physician; New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, assistant professor of medicine. Bellevue Literary Review, cofounder and editor-in-chief. Commentator for All Things Considered, National Public Radio.

AWARDS, HONORS: Best medical textbook designation, American Medical Writer's Association, 2001, for The Bellevue Guide to Outpatient Medicine: An Evidence-Based Guide to Primary Care; Missouri Review Editor's Prize in nonfiction, 2001, for "Merced."

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Nathan Link, Michael Tanner, and Lloyd Wasserman) The Bellevue Guide to Outpatient Medicine: An Evidence-Based Guide to Primary Care (textbook), BMJ Books (Williston, VT), 2001.

Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue, Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 2003.

Contributor to This Side of Doctoring: Reflections from Women in Medicine, edited by Eliza Lo Chin, Sage Publications (Thousand Oaks, CA), 2001; The Best American Essays 2002, edited by Stephen Jay Gould, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2002; and The Best American Science Writing 2003, edited by Oliver Sacks, Ecco Press (New York, NY), 2003. Contributor of essays and books reviews to periodicals, including Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine.

SIDELIGHTS: Danielle Ofri is an attending physician at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, the oldest public hospital in the United States. Ofri's Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue, a collection of essays about her experiences as a medical school student and resident, "resonate[s] with insight, intelligence, humor, and an extraordinary sensitivity to both the patients she treated in this inner-city facility and the staff she worked with," according to a contributor in Publishers Weekly.

In Singular Intimacies Ofri traces her growth as a physician by recounting episodes from her work at Bellevue, including her struggle to arrange heart surgery for a drug-addicted veteran, dealing with the suicide of a demanding hospital supervisor, and hearing a French woman's dying request to have her body flown back to Paris. "Ofri is a gifted writer," observed Robert S. Schwartz in the New England Journal of Medicine. "Her vignettes ring with truth, and for any physician or patient who knows the dramas of a big-city hospital they will evoke tears, laughter, and memories." In the words of Booklist critic Donna Seaman, Ofri "relates each transforming experience in prose so powerful in its lucidity and quest for truth that it arouses both tears and wonder."

In addition to her work at Bellevue, Ofri teaches at the New York University School of Medicine and edits the Bellevue Literary Review, a highly respected journal which she cofounded. The Bellevue Literary Review publishes works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry "that touch upon relationships to the human body, illness, health and healing," according to its Web site. Asked by New Scientist interviewer Michael Bond if she sees any conflicts between her roles as a doctor and a writer, Ofri responded, "I'm hoping I can do both. Will I get promoted as quickly? I don't think so, because I'm not doing high-end research. Will I publish many books? Probably not. But if I get one book out, I'll die happy, and if I have a good experience with my patients and with teaching, I'll be satisfied."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 2003, Donna Seaman, review of Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue, p. 1142.

Boston Globe, April 27, 2003, Caroline Leavitt, "Feeling One's Way in the Healing Arts"; May 7, 2003, Jan Gardner, "Essays Show Doctor's Compassion, Insight."

Hope, July-August, 2003, Chloe Breyer, review of Singular Intimacies.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2003, review of SingularIntimacies, pp. 214-215.

Library Journal, March 15, 2003, James Swanton, review of Singular Intimacies, pp. 108-109.

New England Journal of Medicine, July 10, 2003, Robert S. Schwartz, review of Singular Intimacies, pp. 197-198.

New Scientist, January 11, 2003, Michael Bond, "The Word Doctor."

Poets & Writers, May, 2001, Lori Isbell, "Well Versed in Medicine."

Publishers Weekly, February 24, 2003, review of Singular Intimacies, p. 60.

Washington Post, August 3, 2003, Christine Haughney, "Creative Writing: Old Balm in a New Forum," p. A3.

Women's Review of Books, June, 2003, Sharon Lieberman, "Medicine and Humanity," pp. 16-17.