At The VA, Healing The Doctor-Patient Relationship

Raya Elfadel Kheirbek1

  • 1Raya Elfadel Kheirbek (rekheirbek@gwu.edu) is an associate professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C., and a geriatrician and palliative care physician at the Washington DC Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center. Patient and clinician names in this essay have been changed. Dr. Kheirbek was funded by the VA Capitol Health Care Network to establish the Center for Health and Aging at the Washington DC VA Medical Center. She is grateful to Jessica Bylander, a senior editor at Health Affairs, for comments that greatly improved this essay.

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