Paul Konowitz, M.D., is Medical Director of HealthAngle. Dr. Konowitz is an ear, nose and throat (otolaryngology) and head and neck surgeon at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston. He is also a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School and an assistant clinical professor at Boston University School of Medicine.
After practicing medicine for almost 20 years, Dr. Konowitz was stricken with a potentially life-threatening autoimmune disease. Life as he had known it ended. He fought through the pain of the disease, struggled through a difficult treatment that forced him to stop practicing medicine for a time and overcame a deep depression and a dependence on painkillers.
Once he was able to resume his medical practice, he was a different person, and a different doctor. He had always been a considerate and caring physician, but now he understood firsthand what it was like to be a patient. He also began to write about his experience. This changed his outlook and enabled him to approach his patients and their medical care on a deeper level. He now teaches medical students and other doctors how to appreciate the patient’s perspective.
Receive an email when more of Dr. Konowitz’s story, appearing in installments, is posted.
