Courtesy University of Virginia

Margaret Plews-Ogan MD, MS is Associate Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of General Medicine, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the University of Virginia.  She is Director of the Center for Appreciative Practice at UVA, a positive culture transformation initiative. A recipient of the Rockefellor Fellowship in Theology, Dr. Plews-Ogan received her MD from Harvard Medical School and completed her residency at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston in 1996.  Her areas of research and teaching include patient safety and quality, humanism in medicine, appreciative practice in healthcare (including positive emotion, appreciative inquiry, contemplative practices).  She is co-author of Appreciative Inquiry in Health Care: Positive Questions to Bring Out Our Best.  Dr. Plews-Ogan is the lead investigator on the Wisdom in Medicine Project, a Templeton foundation funded study which investigated how people cope positively with difficult circumstances. This study resulted in a recently released Public Television documentary Choosing Wisdom and a book entitled Choosing Wisdom: Strategies and Inspiration for growing through Life-changing Difficulties. She currently practices general internal medicine and teaches in the medical school and residency programs at the University of Virginia.