Physician Bryant Lin co-founded Stanford’s Center for Asian Health Research and Education, where he researched lung cancer in nonsmokers of Asian descent. Last year, he joined that cohort when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. His next move—other than beginning treatment—was to launch a class at Stanford in which patient became professor. Tracie White’s profile of Lin is more than a portrait of a man fighting cancer; it’s a look at how that man seeks to wring pedagogy from his struggle, so that others can learn.
Lin may not label himself spiritual, but his life path is that of a seeker. He earned electrical engineering and computer science degrees at MIT, then worked as a management consultant before setting out in pursuit of a more human-centered career. Since completing medical school at Tufts in 2002, he’s used his engineering skills to help improve patient-centered care, amassing 15 patents for medical technologies. As a primary care physician at Stanford, he established the Consultative Care Clinic to evaluate patients with medical mysteries. His courses examine a broad array of medical topics, from storytelling to generative AI to the history and science of traditional Chinese medicine. During the pandemic, Lin, a former violinist, co-hosted the Stuck@Home concert series for Stanford’s Medicine & the Muse program, which integrates the arts, writing, and filmmaking into the lives of medical practitioners. In 2021, he stepped into the directorship of Medicine & the Muse. And now he’s examining the experience of being a seriously ill patient, well beyond the medical aspects. “There’s more of everything,” Lin says. “Just the more of life: the friendships, the importance of connection, the living of life. Each day, the deciding: Is this a worthwhile way to spend my time?”Â
