Annie Brewster, "Putting Stories to Work: Why and How Sharing Stories Promotes Health"

Dr. Annie Brewster [http://www.healthstorycollaborative.org/our-team.html] is the Founder and Executive Director of Health Story Collaborative [http://www.healthstorycollaborative.org/], a forum for sharing stories of illness and healing. Dr. Brewster is also a practicing internist at Massachussets General Hospital in Boston. In 2010, Dr. Brewster began recording patient narratives, inspired by a belief in the power of stories to improve health and the patient voice. Her work has been published on the BUR Commonhealth Blog, NPR.org, the New York Times Well Blog, and in the Boston Globe and MS Focus magazine. She has additionally presented at TEDx Fenway 2014.In her lecture, Dr. Brewster will share her perspective on the importance of storytelling within healthcare. Specifically, she will share her knowledge, both personal and scientific, on why stories promote health, as well as practical guidance on how to use storytelling as a therapeutic tool. The Health & Humanities Pop-Up Institute [http://sites.utexas.edu/healthhumanitiespui/] is a collaboration between the Office of the Vice President of Research and the Humanities Institute at the University of Texas at Austin through the following endowments: the Holloway Centennial Lectureship, the Hoffman Centennial Lectureship, the Kidd Centennial Lectureship, and the Ho Distinguished Lecture in China Studies Endowment. Additional support comes from the College of Liberal Arts, the Department of English, and the Dell Medical School.