returning quality to life - Woodruff Health Sciences Center - Emory ...

Five years ago, Emory
geriatrician Wilson
Holland began read-
ing Tom Brokaw’s book,
The Greatest Generation, the
story of those who grew up
in the Great Depression and
then fought in World War
II. He found it hard to put
down. He knew these people.
As a doctor in the Atlanta VA
Medical Center’s Bronze Outpatient
Geriatric Clinic (for patients 75
and older), he had worked with
thousands of men and women like
those Brokaw described. He knew
their health problems. He knew the
way they stolidly bore up under the
aches and limitations of aging or illness,
and he knew the spouses, sons,
and daughters who brought them
to the clinic from throughout north
Georgia. But what he didn’t know,
what hadn’t seemed appropriate to
ask in the busy clinical setting, were
their experiences during WWII.
Wilson Holland was selected as
national winner of the 2010 Mark
Wolcott Award given annually for
Excellence in Clinical Care Delivery by
the Veterans Health Administration.
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