Grants Awarded

Communication

Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Program, Boston, MA — engagement of Boston Schweitzer fellows in establishing effective compassionate relationships across cultural and other differences between patients and caregivers

Alzheimer’s Services of Cape and the Islands, Hyannis, MA — develop a training program for professional caregivers who work with Alzheimer’s patients in nursing homes and assisted living facilities and to conduct a pilot in selected facilities

American Academy on Communication in Healthcare (formerly known as the American Academy on Physician and Patient), Chesterfield, MO

	scholarships for caregivers to attend annual faculty development courses on relationship-centered care
	multi-institutional study to determine the best way to teach humanism in an inpatient setting
	development of curricula to help residency programs meet accreditation standards on doctor-patient communication

Benedictine Health Foundation, Kingston, NY — training to improve the communication between professional caregivers and family caregivers

Berkshire Medical Center, Pittsfield, MA — training in doctor-patient communication

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA

	introduction of medical humanities to third-year Harvard medical students at BIDMC with the goal of fostering a humanistic approach to patient care
	evaluation and dissemination of a curriculum for medical trainees that will improve patient-clinician communication about sex

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA — development of a pilot curriculum to enhance residents' communication skills and interactions during family meetings while they are rotating through the Medical Intensive Care Unit.

Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, Boston, MA - training of caregivers to improve their care of homeless and marginally housed transgendered clients, specifically with respect to mental health services

Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA

	Family Medicine Department — Balint (support) groups for residents to enhance empathy and communication skills
	Department of General Internal Medicine — pilot faculty development program to teach residents interviewing and related psychosocial skills
	development of a training program for volunteers and clinicians to help them communicate with patients with cognitive disabilities
	development of a model residency program to teach communication skills in compliance with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requirements
	provide support to the PAIRS programs which is designed to teach first year Boston University medical students how to interact with and learn from individuals with early stage Alzheimer’s disease

Boston University Gerontology Center, Boston, MA — scholarships for workshops for health and human service workers in agencies that serve immigrant and minority elderly. The workshops focus on end-of-life care, culture-specific issues, and support for family caregivers.

Boston University School of Public Health and collaborators, Boston, MA — development of workshops to strengthen communication between low-income women and their providers from Boston Medical Center, using real life narrative and theater techniques

Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston, MA — sponsorship of Dennis Thomson Compassionate Scholars who were selected to develop compassionate care training programs

Bunker Hill Health Center, Charlestown, MA — funding for a unique, multidisciplinary approach to the complex problem of obesity with an emphasis on the patient-caregiver relationship

Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge, MA

	development and implementation of best practices for involving culturally, linguistically and socio-economically diverse patients in the design of high quality health care
	development of a medical humanities curriculum to be integrated into the medicine and psychiatry residency programs and the Harvard Medical School third-year clerkship at Cambridge Hospital

Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA – dissemination of an innovative educational project to improve communication and relationship building between Neonatal Intensive Care Unit practitioners and families throughout the northeast

Children's Hospital, Seattle, WA — research to determine if parental feedback helps pediatric anesthesiologists communicate better with children and parents during the stressful pre-op period

Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY — narrative medicine workshops in which clinicians write "parallel charts" about what they and their patients are feeling.

Community Catalyst, Boston, MA — development, in partnership with Northeastern University Bouve School and the Center for Community Health Education and Research, of a version of the health access simulation tool "Walk in My Shoes" that focuses on interactions between patients and clinicians

Compassionate Care ALS, West Falmouhth, MA – development of  its “Cultivating Compassion Training Series” which helps health care professionals provide compassionate care to patients with Lou Gehrig’s Disease

Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Northampton, MA — hospital-wide expansion of a program, successfully piloted in the Emergency Department, to improve respect and caring for patients and families

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA — videos of young adults with cancer to be used as teaching tools

Dana-Farber/Partners Cancer Care, Boston, MA — bi-monthly Balint groups for oncology fellows to enhance empathy and communication skills

Doylestown Hospital To Your Health Radio Program, Doylestown, PA — production of 12 radio segments highlighting a common challenge in doctor-patient communication based on real patient experiences

Fairview Hospital, Great Barrington, MA — development of a coordinated community approach to educate a disease-specific group of patients about their disease and to improve patient-caregiver communication

Greater Brockton Parish Health Consortium, Brockton, MA — expansion of a parish nursing program where nurses and other health professionals minister to the needs of fellow congregation members

Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA — "Healer's Art" course

Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA — professional educational program addressing substantial differences in health care outcomes, and concurrent lack of trust, of specific racial and ethnic groups

Health Law Advocates, Boston, MA — development of a guide for consumers to clarify HIPAA regulations

Health Professionals Training Institute, Cambridge, MA — scholarships to train direct care workers in communications skills and cultural competency

The Hospital Elder Life Program at Caritas Norwood Hospital, Norwood, MA — a day long geriatric conference "More Than Just Words: Communicating with Patients with Dementia" for multidisciplinary caregivers

Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA

	research on nurses who have survived cancer and the effect of their experiences on their clinical practice
	conference, development of a handbook for family caregivers, and a curriculum for health professionals to prepare family-professional teams for ethical dilemmas involving life-sustaining treatments

Jewish Family & Children's Service, Boston, MA — training for caregivers in long-term care facilities on the special needs of Holocaust survivors

Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, MD — research on what physicians with cancer learn from their experience as patients

Johns Hopkins Children's Center, Baltimore, MD — a monthly orientation and end-of-rotation session to pediatric house staff to help them cope with the emotional demands of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Maria Judge, Medford, MA — photo exhibit that chronicles her experience as a patient with cancer

Ellen Kagan, MA — cable TV show on communicating with patients

Lehigh Valley Hospital, Allentown, PA- trainings for multidisciplinary caregivers about the etiquette of care for patients with disabilities

Lehigh Valley Hospital, Department of Family Medicine, Allentown, PA – to expand the Patients with Disabilities as Teachers (P-DAT) program, including patients and parents of children with disabilities to train medical students, residents and clinical/non-clinical staff to better understand and treat patients with disabilities

Jeannie Lindheim, Newton, MA — workshops on communicating with patients with life-threatening illness

Beth Lown, MD, Brookline, MA — forum for patients and physicians to derive collaboratively a communications model for shared decision-making

Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA

	Adolescent Medicine Division — implementation and evaluation of a curriculum to help residents communicate with adolescents
	Psychiatry Department — to address the psychosocial concerns of patients who are undergoing genetic testing for cancer
	Weight Center — development and implementation of a workshop to teach clinicians to relate more compassionately to obese patients
	Women's Health Program — training for caregivers on complementary medicine

Maine Humanities Council, Portland, ME - provide speakers for its conference, “Caring for the Caregiver: Perspectives on Literature and Medicine”

Massachusetts Long Term Care Foundation, Newton, MA — design and implementation of a pain management training program for caregivers in long-term care facilities

MATCH-UP Interfaith Volunteers, Boston, MA — "What's Up, Doc?" workshops to help elders and their providers communicate more effectively

MediaWorks, Gloucester, MA — video to help women with metastatic breast cancer and to educate their caregivers about the experience

Melissa's Living Legacy, Henrietta, NY — multi-method training for clinicians who treat adolescents with cancer to help them respond to the unique needs of these patients and their families

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY — establishment of a "train the trainer" program to create a team of "Schwartz Center communication facilitators" who will teach communication skills

MIT Medical, Cambridge, MA — development of a self-sustaining training program to improve communication between patients and providers and compare patient satisfaction results between caregivers who have received the training and those who have not

Mount Auburn Hospital, Cambridge, MA – piloting of the hospital’s “Patients-as-Partners” project in the diagnostic mammography suite, focusing on improving communication between radiology residents and patients, using patients as teachers

National Council on Women's Health, New York, NY — symposium in New York about the patient-caregiver relationship

Neponset Health Center, Dorchester, MA- refresher training to medical providers, mental health providers and interpreters to strengthen their partnerships and communication skills

Neville Center at Fresh Pond, Cambridge, MA — full-day training sessions for its workforce focusing on increasing empathy for nursing home residents and improving communications skills

Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Newton, MA — support for "Children's Emotional Healthlink" website to promote earlier diagnosis of pediatric emotional problems by improving physician-parent communication

Northeastern University, Boston, MA — use of standardized patients to help physical therapy students communicate and relate better with patients

Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL — development and production of an original drama based on healthcare workers' own stories of their relationships with patients

Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, IL — implementation of a curriculum called "Difficult Conversations" for third-year medical students to improve their communication skills around difficult patient issues

Norwood Hospital, Norwood, MA — training multidisciplinary caregivers to communicate more effectively with patients with dementia.

Norwood collaborative, Norwood, MA — develop a program that ensures that patients’ beliefs and care preferences are communicated to their caregivers as they move from one care setting to another.

Overlook Hospital, Summit, NJ — Balint groups for internal medicine residents

Parent to Parent of Vermont, Williston, VT — program in which family members observe pediatric residents as they interact with hospitalized children and their families at Fletcher Allen Hospital in Vermont

Sam Putnam, MD, Cambridge, MA — groundwork for a documentary film on the doctor-patient relationship and a multi-faceted national PBS outreach project

Peggy Rambach, Andover, MA and the Vermont Arts Exchange, North Bennington, VT — Arts and Healing Initiative writing workshops at health care facilities in Massachusetts and Vermont for patients and clinicians to write about their relationships

Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI — lecture on compassionate care

Roxbury Community College School of Nursing, Boston, MA — teaching materials related to cultural competency and end-of-life

Saint Elizabeth's Medical Center, Boston, MA — program to enhance residency training with visits to patients' homes

Saint Joseph Manor Health Care, Brockton, MA — communications training workshops for certified nursing assistants

Lidia Schapira, MD, Boston, MA — monthly study group for physicians to allow for collective learning, sharing of stories and intergenerational learning

Lidia Schapira, MD, and Julie Goldman — video and accompanying study guide on the patient-physician relationship to be used as a teaching tool

Sherrill House, Boston, MA — education of family members and patients about pain management and how to be an effective advocate for pain relief

Simmons College Society and Health Program, Boston, MA — lecture series on compassionate care

Southwestern Vermont Healthcare and the Institute for Medical Humanism, Bennington, VT — video entitled "The Lived World of Illness," which features metastatic cancer patients talking about their health care experiences, available to providers who work with cancer patients and their families

SUNY at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY — pilot program in its medical school curriculum where residents would serve as co-facilitators with faculty in teaching compassionate, humanistic medicine

Tufts University, Medford, MA — patient-as-educator model to teach compassionate care to third-year medical students

Tufts University Family Practice Residency, Malden, MA — curriculum to train family medicine residents in the effective use of family counseling/therapy in an outpatient health center setting

Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA —training for 20 physicians from hospital affiliates to be “master teachers” of compassionate care

UMass Memorial Medical Center, Worcester, MA — training for medical students, residents and faculty on pediatric palliative care as part of an effort to establish a pediatric palliative care program at the hospital

University of Chicago Hospitals, Chicago, IL — research to improve surgeons' communication skills

University of Massachusetts Medical School, Student Sidekicks Program, Worcester, MA - to fund a patient-centered program for 1st & 2nd year medical students offering social support to pediatric patients and their families undergoing treatment for chronic illness.

University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI – to fund the development of an assessment tool for faculty to use as they assess medical student’s electronic communication skills with parents of pediatric patients


Visiting Nurse Association of Boston, Boston, MA — training program to help nurses develop fulfilling short-term relationships with patients

Women of Means, Wellesley, MA

	training and other initiatives to improve the health care of homeless women
	support for a partnership between Women of Means, Regis College and Harvard Medical School to teach nursing and nurse practitioner students to provide compassionate medical services to homeless women