Rana Awdish

Rana Awdish, MD, FCCP is the author of In Shock, a memoir based on her own critical illness. A critical care physician and faculty member of Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan, she completed her medical degree at Wayne State in 2002 where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha national medical honor society, her residency at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in New York, and her fellowship training at Henry Ford Hospital where she serves as the current Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Program. She was also recently named Medical Director of Care Experience for the entire Health System. Dr. Awdish’s mandate is to improve the patient experience across the system and speak on patient advocacy at health care venues nationally.

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After suffering a sudden critical illness herself, she has special interest in improving empathy through connection and communication. She lectures to physicians, health care leaders and medical schools across the country. She was awarded the Speak-Up Hero award in 2014 for her work establishing a workshop based program called CLEAR (Connect, Listen, Emphasize, Align, Respect), which trains faculty and trainees in relationship-based communication skills utilizing improvisational actors. She was named Henry Ford Hospital’s Critical Care Teacher of the Year in 2016. She was awarded the Compassionate Caregiver of the Year award by the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare in 2017 and was named Physician of the Year by Press Ganey that same year. She has been featured in the Times, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the BBC, the Guardian, NPR and the Washington Post. Her New England Journal of Medicine Perspectives article, A View from the Edge, went viral garnering over 100,000 views and is ranked in the 99th percentile for reach.

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She lives in Michigan with her husband Randy, their son Walt, a very old tabby cat named Lexy and a baby Ragdoll kitten named Delphine. Her hobbies include Ashtanga yoga, cooking and oil painting.