Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACTS:
Vicki Ritterband                                                                        
The Kenneth B. Schwartz Center
617-795-0180; vritterband@rcn.com

Erin McDaniel
CarePages, Inc.
773-327-7402; emcdaniel@tlcontact.com

NEW COLLABORATION BRINGS CAREGIVERS AND PATIENTS TOGETHER ON THE WEB

Kenneth B. Schwartz Center and CarePages.com Create Online Community Focused on Compassionate Caregiving

November 6, 2007 – An organization whose mission is to advance compassionate healthcare and the leading Internet service for building online health communities have created an online forum to support and celebrate compassionate, empathetic healthcare.

The Kenneth B. Schwartz Center and CarePages.com recently launched Compassionate Connections in Healthcare (www.carepages.com/compassionateconnections), an interactive website offering numerous resources for clinical caregivers and patients to encourage better relationships between the two. The site features Stories of Inspiration, real-life narratives about extraordinary patient-caregiver relationships; Bedside Manner, a blog about “emotionally-intelligent” caregiving; and many other resources to help caregivers and patients build compassionate, mutually beneficial relationships.

“The Schwartz Center’s focus has always been on caregivers, so this collaboration is a wonderful opportunity to expand our reach to the millions of patients and families who participate in CarePages.com’s terrific online communities,” says Julie Rosen, the executive director of the Boston-based Kenneth B. Schwartz Center. “Our vision for this website is for it to be a lively, interactive and edifying place where patients and caregivers come together to foster the compassion in healthcare.”

“The mission of CarePages is to ensure patients and their families receive the emotional support they need when facing a significant health event.  Compassionate Connections in Healthcare provides real examples for both caregivers and patient families to understand how they can better communicate with and support each other,” says Eric Langshur, CEO of CarePages, Inc.  “This relationship between a patient and their professional caregiver is critical to the healthcare experience and we’re delighted to partner with The Schwartz Center to encourage its continued improvement.”

Compassionate Connections in Healthcare isalways looking for interesting, moving stories from patients about caregivers who have cared for them compassionately and made a real difference. The website has a link for users to email their personal stories to the editor.  If the patients agree, some of these stories will be featured on the site in the future.

About the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center
Shortly before his death from lung cancer in September 1995, Kenneth B. Schwartz established a Center dedicated to strengthening the relationship between patients and caregivers.  The Kenneth B. Schwartz Center is an autonomous, nonprofit organization with a mission to support and advance compassionate health care in which caregivers, patients and their families relate to one another in a way that provides hope to the patient, support to caregivers, and sustenance to the healing process.  The Center’s most successful and fastest growing program, the Schwartz Center Rounds, operates at 130 sites in 26 states. For more information, please visit www.theschwartzcenter.org.

About CarePages.com
CarePages.com is the first site dedicated solely to helping people cope with the emotional difficulties caused by a health event. Millions of CarePages.com members have used its free, patient-centric web pages to communicate and connect with each other, plus its unique resources to guide them through the experience. In addition, customized CarePages are offered by more than 550 U.S. and Canadian healthcare facilities. CarePages, Inc. is part of Revolution Health Group LLC, whose goal is to help consumers make informed choices and put them in control of their health decisions through the cornerstone of its efforts – RevolutionHealth.com. Together, these services address both the emotional and informational health care needs of its members.  For more information, please visit www.carepagesinc.com.

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