When the Famous Get Sick and the Sick Get Famous: Celebs as Patients Focus of UAB Lecture March 4

Tabloid TV and checkout counter newspapers make their living on the health and not-so-wellbeing of celebrities. The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) will examine that fascination with celebrity health with a lecture by the author of a book on the subject at the 31st annual Reynolds Historical Lecture, set for 4 p.m. Thursday, March 4.

February 22, 2010

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Tabloid TV and checkout counter newspapers make their living on the health and not-so-wellbeing of celebrities. The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) will examine that fascination with celebrity health with a lecture by the author of a book on the subject at the 31st annual Reynolds Historical Lecture, set for 4 p.m. Thursday, March 4.

Barron H. Lerner, M.D., Ph.D., will present "When the Famous get Sick and the Sick Get Famous: What We Do and Do Not Learn from Celebrity Patients" in the Lister Hill Library Ireland Room, 1700 University Blvd. Lerner is the author of When Illness Goes Public: Celebrity Patients and How We Look at Medicine, published in 2006 by the Johns Hopkins University Press, copies of which will be available at a book-signing scheduled as part of the event.

The Reynolds Historical Lecture is sponsored by the UAB Historical Collections unit of Lister Hill Library. It is free and open to the public and is co-sponsored by the Camellia Group of UAB. A reception will follow in the Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences sponsored by the UAB Office of the President.

Lerner, the Angelica Berrie-Gold Foundation Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and the Mailman School of Public Health, has garnered rave reviews for his insights on the public's fascination with celebrity health.

Writing in JAMA, Ylisabyth Bradshaw said, "Lerner has created a powerful prism through his thoughtful exploration of celebrity illness, highlighting societal and cultural forces that widely affect public and private health-care decisions. His fascinating analysis allows us to examine these complex influences, with the possibility of understanding the intimate magic of celebrity for the future benefits of the public's health."

"Lerner has done a beautiful job of tracing the degree to which celebrity patients have reflected and shaped the modern American understanding of doctors, patients and illness. This book is a pleasure to read because of its compelling storytelling and analysis," wrote the New England Journal of Medicine.

Lerner, an award-winning author of a book on breast cancer and contributor to the New York Times and National Public Radio, practices internal medicine and teaches medical ethics and the history of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center.

About UAB

The UAB Historical Collections unit of Lister Hill Library consists of the Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences, the Reynolds Historical Library and UAB Archives. Known for its innovative and interdisciplinary approach to education at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, UAB is an internationally renowned research university and academic medical center and the state of Alabama's largest employer.