Press Releases

Contact:
Vicki Ritterband
The Kenneth B. Schwartz Center
(617) 795-0180

Cynthia French, NP, Named Schwartz Center Compassionate Caregiver of the Year

Cynthia French, NP, MS, a nurse practitioner at UMass Memorial Medical Center, is the winner of the prestigious Schwartz Center Compassionate Caregiver Award, given by the Boston-based Kenneth B. Schwartz Center.

The award, now in its tenth year, recognizes the caregiver in Massachusetts who best personifies the mission of the Schwartz Center to “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.”

French’s award will be announced at the Schwartz Center’s annual dinner on November 12 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Some 112 healthcare workers were nominated this year, making it the most competitive year ever. The nominees ranged from social workers to physicians to nurses. AstraZeneca, a leading pharmaceutical company, has sponsored the award for the past four years.

“Cynthia has spent much of her life working with patients who struggle with one of the most basic requirements of life: breath,” said Julie Rosen, executive director of the Schwartz Center. “She is smart, passionate and tenacious, and has been like an angel to her patients, especially those who struggle with lung disease and Lou Gehrig’s disease, a progressive neurodegenerative illness.”

French works as a nurse practitioner in UMass Memorial’s Lung and Allergy Center, is the program facilitator for critical care operations and is an assistant editor of the journal Chest.

Wielding a “velvet hammer,” as one patient’s wife put it, Cindy has made a career out of recognizing patient needs that are not being met, then working with kindred spirits to create change. When it became clear that more could be done to improve the quality of life for patients with lung disease, Cindy, her long-time collaborator Richard Irwin, MD, and several colleagues created a pulmonary rehabilitation program. Pulmonary rehab was so novel at the time it wasn’t clear whether insurers would cover it.

When she and Dr. Irwin realized that their pulmonary patients with Amyotrphic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, were having trouble managing multiple appointments at different locations, they created a virtual ALS center, offering multi-disciplinary ALS care in one location.

“Many of her patients have not wanted to die without Cindy being present,” said one colleague. Cindy always sends the mourners a note with a copy of Healing After Loss, a book that offered her deep solace after her own father died.

The four other finalists for the award were:

• Marcela del Carmen, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital
• Avra Goldman, MD, Boston Medical Center
• Rabbi Sara Paasche-Orlow, Hebrew SeniorLife/Hebrew Rehabilitation Center
• Maripat Toye, RN, MS, Baystate Medical Center

About the Schwartz Center
The Schwartz Center, established in 1996, is an autonomous, not-for-profit organization, which supports compassionate health care and seeks to strengthen the relationship between patients and caregivers. The Center achieves its goals through education, training and support programs. A statewide review committee composed of physicians, nurses, social workers, community health workers, and patient advocates reviewed the nominations for the award.