Dr. Saul Green Memorial Lecture – “Imagining Better Health Care: Can counterfactual (“what if…”) learning by analogy from the bible help?”

The Dr. Saul Green Memorial Lecture addresses the intersection of Judaism, medicine and humanitarianism, all three of which Dr. Green was passionate about in his lifetime. The lecture focuses on complex humanistic and ethical challenges. The lectureship has been endowed by a gift from the Green family to honour the memory of Dr. Saul Green and to inspire and knit together the congregation of Shaar Shalom Synagogue and the community of Halifax. The lectureship partners are Shaar Shalom Synagogue and the University of King’s College.

This year’s lecture will be presented by Dr. Abraham (Rami) Rudnick, a psychiatrist and philosopher. Dr. Rudnick is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and School of Occupational Therapy at Dalhousie University and the Clinical Director of the Nova Scotia Operational Stress Injury Clinic. He is a Canadian Certified Physician Executive and the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Mental Health. He is a recipient of many national and international awards and other recognitions.

Dr. Rudnick’s lecture will examine some promising aspects of creative and critical thinking such as learning from counterfactuals (using what if… examples) and learning by analogy (referring to similar issues in other areas of life). While these have not been sufficiently used for health care transformation, his presentation will integrate these aspects to learn from the bible how to consider health care transformation in Canada. For example, Abraham’s decision making to sacrifice his son will be used to argue for transformation in forensic psychiatry. Noah’s process for selecting animals for the Ark will be used to argue for transformation in health care funding.