Coming Soon: A New Comprehensive LCCHM Website.
While we are "under construction" please find pertinent LCCHM information on this page. As we continue to grow, we would greatly appreciate your input on ways to make the website more meaningful and enhance humanism in medicine programming.
Thank you!
The Liz Claiborne Center for Humanism in Medicine (LCCHM)
Welcome to our web page!
Since May 2011 the newly created Liz Claiborne Center for Humanism in Medicine (LCCHM) at New York Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH) and Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) offers its health care professionals and trainees educational programming aimed at enhancing and integrating the principles of palliative care and medical humanism into patient care. Complementing the emphasis on cutting-edge, high-tech and evidence-based medicine, a focus on humanism in medicine reminds us of the importance of patient-and family-centered care, and effective open communication. It helps us develop the tools to nurture the art of creating caring, respectful, compassionate relationships between patients and ourselves, to connect with our patients as people, and to make meaningful differences in the individual lives of our patients and ourselves.
As we strive to identify the best vehicle for teaching humanism in medicine, we encourage creative engagement among health care professionals and we look to the LCHMM as a home for creativity in medicine. The LCCHM aims to promote medical humanism in its educational planning through developing programs for health professionals that:
- Focus on understanding the stories of our patients
- Increase mindfulness of:
- the patients' illness experience
- the importance of respect for the patients' perspectives, values, and concerns and their participation in shared decision-making
- Utilize the humanities as a vehicle for:
- enhanced consciousness and understanding of the human experience
- self-reflection as a means of professional growth and self-palliation
The LCCHM warmly invites the NYPH/WCMC professional community to participate in a variety of interesting programs--scroll down to view these offerings. Please join us!
Additionally, an important goal of the LCCHM is to build its' programming on the interests and needs of the medical center's faculty and staff. We are committed to making the LCCHM a home for fostering unique and exciting humanistic educational forums. We invite you to share your thoughts and ideas. Please contact us at:[email protected]
We are extremely grateful to the Liz Claiborne Art Ortenberg Foundation for generously supporting the LCCHM. Thank you!
We appreciate your visit to our web page and look forward your involvement in the LCCHM.
Kind regards,
Randi R. Diamond MD, Director, LCCHM
Ronald Adelman MD, Executive Director, LCCHM
LCCHM Educational Initiatives for Health Care Professionals
As we bring medical humanism into traditional teaching modalities, we also continue to develop and explore new ways in which the humanities and medicine can be integrated at NYPH/WCMC. The LCCHM initiatives are described below in 3 distinct sections:
- "Liz Rounds": Three Unique Educational Offerings
- Developing Programs and Collaborative Initiatives
- Selected LCCHM-Supported Teaching Sessions
I. "Liz Rounds": Three Unique Educational Offerings
1) Interdisciplinary Narrative Medicine Group
1st Wednesday of each Month, 12 Noon, Baker 1429
This segment of Liz Rounds is intended to enhance the medical professionals' listening and understanding of patients' stories, to encourage medical professionals to synthesize their reactions to these stories, and to provide an opportunity for health professionals to personally reflect on their caregiving experiences.
Each monthly meeting of the interdisciplinary group of healthcare professionals is organized in collaboration with Dr. Susan Ball, Associate Attending Physician, Center for Special Studies, Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Ball, who recently completed a master's degree in Narrative Medicine, facilitates the group's discussion and analysis of a literary piece, as well as responsive writing by all participants.
- Upcoming Meetings
March 7, 2012 TBA April 4, 2012 TBA May 2, 2012 TBA June 6, 2012 TBA - Previous Meetings
February 1, 2012 Short story-Misery by Anton Chekov January 4, 2012 Poem-The Death of Marilyn Monroe by Sharon Olds December 7, 2011 Essay-Front Row Seat by Rachel Naomi Remen
2) Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Case Conferences
4th Wednesday of each month, 12 Noon, Baker 1429
As a way of extending the interdisciplinary and holistic principles and practice of palliative care throughout NYPH/WCMC, teams of health care professionals from diverse disciplines/departments are invited to select and present challenging case(s) for discussions with the NYPH Palliative Care team. During these conferences, our goal is to provide a supportive venue for professionals of all disciplines to reflect on their concerns about caring for patients with an eye towards brainstorming solution-oriented ideas to enhance caregiver-patient interactions and patient well being.
- Upcoming Meetings
February 22, 2012 TBA March 28, 2012 TBA April 25, 2012 TBA May 23, 2012 TBA June 27, 2012 TBA - Previous Meetings
January 25, 2012 Case Presented by NYPH Leukemia Service
3) Medical Humanities Lectures, Workshops, and Discussions
Dates, times and locations TBA
Focused on fostering ethical and humanistic patient care and building strong interpersonal and communications skills, a variety of speakers are invited to address issues in health and patient care as seen through the lens of the humanities, such as literature, history, philosophy, ethics, anthropology, religious and cultural studies, visual arts, and performance arts (i.e., music, theatre, dance).
- Upcoming Sessions
February 21, 2012: Caregiving and Medicine: Are They Compatible in Our Time? How the Medical Humanities and the Moral Cultivation of the Physician Can Rehumanize Healthcare and Medicine (Lecture title), Arthur Kleinman, MD, Rabb Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University will present at the Medicine Grand Rounds in Uris Auditorium at 12 Noon.
February 23, 2012: Public Medical Communication, Louise Aronson, MD, MFA Associate Professor of Medicine, Director, UCSF Medical Humanities, Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics, University of California, San Francisco will present to the NYPH/WCMC Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology at 9am on Baker 14, F1429
June 21, 2012: Using the Humanities in Medical Education (Lecture topic), Arthur Derse, MD, JD, Director; Julia Uihlein, MA, Associate director, Medical College of Wisconsin Medical Humanities Program. - Previous Sessions
January 26, 2012: The Family Health Care Decisions Act and Patients' Prior Wishes: Ethical Considerations (Lecture title), Hannah Lipman, MD, Associate Director Montefiore-Einstein Center for Bioethics.
January 25, 2012: Palliative Care: The Art of Balancing Hopes and Expectations, Medical Student Aging and Geriatric Interest Group Discussion with Palliative Care Team.
November 16, 2011: Healing Through Humanism (DVD) produced by Ruth Yorkin Drazin (Viewing and Discussion).
November 10, 2011: Narrative Ethics for End-of-Life (Reading, analysis and discussion of Richard Selzer's essays titled, "Mercy" and "A Question of Mercy"), Alvan Ikoku, MD, PhD (English and Comparative Literature), Montefiore-Einstein Program in Bioethics and Medical Humanities.
November 5, 2011: Grieving the Loss of our Patients (Discussion, reading and personal reflection) NY Metropolitan Area Psychosocial Consortium for Geriatrics Fellows.
September 15, 2011: The Long Goodbye (Discussion and reading from book), Meghan O'Rourke, author, discussed grieving the loss of her mother.
May 25, 2011: Say Her Name (Lecture and reading from book), Francisco Goldman, author, discussed sudden loss and grieving. - Ongoing Sessions:
January 2011- present (approximately 3-5 per/year): Palliative Care - Hospitalists Case Conference. Past topics have included: Communication at End of Life; Educating Patients and Families about Illness and Dying Expectations; and Managing Intractable Suffering.
- April 2011 - present (approximately 2/per year): Palliative Care - Oncology Fellows Case Conference.
- Next case conference scheduled for March 30, 12 noon (Location: TBA)
II. Developing Programs and Collaborative Initiatives
The LCCHM continues to explore innovative ways to enhance and initiate educational and clinical activities. Some of our projects include:
- Developing Educational Digital Video Files with Curriculum Guidelines
In collaboration with Lucy Bruell, MS* the LCMHM has begun filming actual Palliative Care health provider-patient care encounters to create a digital library of case studies for the purpose of educating practicing physicians, medical residents, medical students, nurses and nursing students. In addition, the LCMHM is developing accompanying curriculum guidelines for each case study. These film clips and curriculum guidelines will be archived on the LCCHM website for broader educational use.
*Lucy Bruell, MS, is an Instructor in the Division of Medical Humanities, Department of Medicine at NYU School of Medicine, and the Editor-in-chief of the NYU's Literature, Arts, and Medicine database, an annotated multimedia listing of prose, poetry, film, video and art developed as a resource for teaching and research in the medical humanities. - Collaboration with the Music and Medicine Initiative: Hospital Concerts
The LCCHM has collaborated with the Music and Medicine Initiative Music to bring live music to the inpatient units for the pleasure and palliation of patients and their families. The Music and Medicine Initiative's mission is to help the student musician as he or she segues into the role of medical student. Emphasis is on continued academic excellence with the added opportunity for students to practice music as a way to balance a busy academic life. - Past Performances
December 8, 2011 Holiday Concert on 5W
10 medical student musicians, who sang and played musical instruments, performed this evening recital for patients, families and staff.
III. Selected LCCHM-Supported Teaching Sessions
NYPH/WCMC faculty and staff have welcomed efforts of the LCCHM to incorporate medical humanism into traditional teaching modalities. To date LCCHM has contributed faculty, administrative support, curriculum development or financial support into existing medical teaching programs, including the following:
- Cornell Internal Medicine Associates Palliative Care Educational Unit for Residents Twelve hours of teaching for each medical intern within a small group structure in the following areas: Death & Dying; Communication in Palliative Care; Care Transitions; and Symptom Management in Serious Illness.
- Medicine Patients and Society I Course: Chronic Illness Unit Introduction to Palliative Care lecture to the entire first year medical student class.
- Intern Retreat Spring 2011, Collaboration with the Division of Pulmonary Critical Care to develop an in depth 4 hour retreat for medical interns. The retreat incorporated several lectures on the role of palliative care in the intensive care unit and structured exercises with medical residents with standardized patients/family members.
- Palliative Care Team - Ethics Collaboration Medicine Patients and Society II Course/ Ethics Section: members of the Palliative Care team serve as faculty tutors for small group sessions with second year medical students in which basic issues in clinical ethics and various approaches to managing those issues are addressed. Topics include informed consent, end-of-life decisions, ethics in pediatrics, reproductive medicine, and clinical research.
