About Dr. Harpham
Wendy Harpham is a doctor of internal medicine, 36-year cancer survivor, award-winning author and nationally recognized speaker. She has devoted her career to helping patients get good care and live as fully as possible.
Born, raised and educated in New York, she received her Bachelor of Science with Honors from Cornell University and her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. She moved to Texas for her post-graduate training in internal medicine. In 1983, she opened a solo practice at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, where she developed teaching tools to educate her patients about their illnesses and treatments.
In 1990, she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. When ongoing illness forced Dr. Harpham to stop practicing medicine and redefine her career, she turned to writing and speaking as ways to continue to educate, comfort and inspire patients. In addition to her groundbreaking books and articles, Dr. Harpham has been writing a popular and award-winning regular column for Oncology Times, “View from the Other Side of the Stethoscope.”
For 10 years, she was an adjunct professor in the Honors College at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). With her husband, a professor of political theory, she co-taught a series of classes entitled, "Medicine, Politics and Philosophy." She mentored premedical students and offered lectures and workshops on writing or medicine-related topics.
After many courses of treatment, including investigational drugs received in clinical trials, Dr. Harpham’s lymphoma has remained in remission. Aftereffects and late effects have prevented her from returning to clinical medicine, but she continues to write and lecture. In her free time, she enjoys reading, classical music, tap dancing, visiting with her adult children and six grandchildren, and time with her husband.