A Million Dollar Prize For A Doc Who Believes In 'Accompaniment'
As the founder of Partners in Health, he seeks to bring modern medical care to all. Now he is the happy — if a bit surprised — to receive the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture.
When Dr. Paul Farmer learned that he would receive a million-dollar award for his work, he was a bit ... baffled. He is a Harvard Medical School professor, medical anthropologist and co-founder of Partners In Health, an organization whose mission is to bring modern medical care to those in need around the world. But the words "medicine" or "health" do not appear in the award, announced Dec. 16. It is the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture. "I was a little shocked to get a prize with the word 'philosophy,'" he says.
And yet it's apt, says Nicholas Berggruen, real estate investor and founder of the private equity firm Berggruen Holdings. He founded the
