UB faculty member David M. Holmes, author of the forthcoming book, “Patient Case Studies on Religion and Spirituality in Healthcare Practice,” will discuss how spirituality and religion affect our health at a talk on Jan. 15.

The free, public event takes place from 5:30-7 p.m. in Room 1225A in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, 955 Main St, Buffalo. It is being sponsored by the Department of Family Medicine.

Holmes is clinical associate professor of family medicine and director of global health education in the Jacobs School. He has led UB medical and health sciences students on medical missions to Haiti, Panama, India, Nepal, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.

A physician with UBMD Family Medicine and ECMC Family Health Center, Holmes also volunteers as medical director for free, faith-based clinics in Buffalo and teaches the “Faith, Medicine and End of Life Care” course in the Jacobs School. He also practices addiction medicine and uses a patient-centered approach that is often faith-based to help interested patients recover from opioid use disorder.

His book, which will be published later this year, covers more than 130 patient case studies involving 31 different religions and other beliefs.

Holmes says that while the relationship between faith and health is relevant around the world, it’s also critical to health care in Western New York, which is home to people from many different countries and cultures. 

“Having a better understanding of who our patients are and how their beliefs affect their health, well-being and medical decision-making enables us to provide better patient-centered, whole-person health care,” Holmes says.

“At the same time, addressing the spiritual needs of patients, where possible, can be beneficial for the provider as well, because it helps to humanize medicine, allowing providers to connect with patients on a deeper level,” he says.

He adds that studies have shown that when physicians do this, they have higher levels of job satisfaction and less burnout, a critical concern in today’s health care system.