C-MEd Forum: Sessions

Presenter:
William Mobley, MD, PhD — Director, Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion

Organization:
Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion

Session Description:
Catalyzed by a generous gift in 2019 to secure a kinder and more compassionate world, the Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion at UC San Diego explores the neurobiology of compassion, informs medical education, and directly addresses the epidemic of physician burnout. Our vision is a transformation of medical education in which an emphasis on skill learning and competence in empathy and compassion parallels that for scientific and technical skills. We welcome you to the Forum by sharing our history and context, defining the problem we seek to address, and sharing some of the research about a critical element of the solution: fostering empathy and compassion for self and others. Throughout the course of the Forum, we are eager to share a number of flagship programs we have created and evaluated over the last five years.

Moderator:
William Mobley, MD, PhD — Director, Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion

Panelists: 

• Patty Maysent — CEO, UC San Diego Health
• Christopher Kane, MD — CEO, UC San Diego Health Physician Group
• John Carethers, MD — Vice Chancellor, UC San Diego Health Sciences
• Steve Garfin, MD — Interim Dean, UC San Diego School of Medicine
• Michelle Daniel, MD, MHPE, FACEP — Vice Dean for Medical Education, UC San Diego School of Medicine
• Sean Evans, MD — Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education, UC San Diego School of Medicine
• Elizabeth Simmons, PhD — Executive Vice Chancellor, UC San Diego
• Crystal Cené, MD, MPH, FAHA — Chief Administrative Officer for Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, UC San Diego Health

Session Description:
Get to know some of your fellow Forum attendees, hear about why folks were inspired to attend, and learn what they hope to transform at their institution. Gain awareness of challenges other attendees are facing in medical education and how they hope to incorporate more empathy and compassion initiatives in their school. Our leaders from UC San Diego Health Sciences, Health System, School of Medicine, and the university will share how they have each fostered and created opportunities for change across UC San Diego so that empathy and compassion became key tenets in our institution. Successes and challenges will be discussed to demonstrate that while each school of medicine faces unique challenges, there are also universal opportunities for positive change.

Presenters: 

• Lisa Eyler, PhD — Director, Center for Empathy and Compassion Training in Medical Education
• Federica Klaus, MD, PhD — Assistant Project Scientist and Director of Research, Center for Empathy and Compassion Training in Medical Education
• Geoffroy Noel, MD — Professor and Chief, Division of Anatomy, UC San Diego Department of Surgery and UC San Diego School of Medicine
• Shireen Mansouri — Content Lead, CCT Teacher, Compassion Institute
• Niveda Rao — UC San Diego Medical Student

Organizations:

• Center for Empathy and Compassion Training in Medical Education
• Compassion Institute

Session Description:
The foundational anatomy lab course for all first-year medical students at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine has transformed over the last two years to include explicit humanistic and compassionate skill-building practices to give students long-lasting skills to grow into caring providers. Traditionally, many anatomy courses promote anonymity for the deceased, detached regard for the “human cadaver”, and mastery of basic science knowledge. Our anatomy course, Compassionatomy, flips that script, however. We promote engagement with the body donor (not cadaver or specimen) as the first patient, awareness and acknowledgement of the difficult emotions that arise, gratitude for the donor, curiosity and awe for the learning experience, and development of compassion for self and others in a supportive learning community.  In this session, you will learn the story behind the development of Compassionatomy, experience for yourself some of the compassion activities, hear about the evidence we have gathered on Compassionatomy’s benefits, and begin to plan how you could bring such a program back to your institution.

Presenters: 

• Evonne Kaplan-Liss MD, MPH
• Val Lantz-Gefroh, MFA

Organization:
Center for Compassionate Communication

Session Description:
We are facing a communication crisis in health care which also impacts provider burnout. Our mission is to inspire the practice of compassionate communication through an engaging, innovative curriculum based in the arts and humanities. Join us to learn about our research, outreach, and programming available to you and your students, and take home a simple lesson to implement this week with your learners.

Moderator:
Chris Cannavino, MD — Director, Center for Mentorship in Medicine

Panelists: 

• Joel Baumgartner, MD, MAS, FACS — Associate Co-Director, Surgery Master Clinician Program, UC San Diego
• Jabe Best, MD — Associate Director, Psychiatry Master Clinician Program, UC San Diego
• Julia Cormano, MD — Associate Director, Obstetrics & Gynecology Master Clinician Program, UC San Diego
• Brian Kwan, MD — Associate Co-Director, Internal Medicine Master Clinician Program, UC San Diego
• Jamie LaBuzetta, MD, MSc, MPhil — Associate Director, Neurology Master Clinician Program, UC San Diego
• Meghan Sebasky, MD — Associate Co-Director, Internal Medicine Master Clinician Program, UC San Diego
• Haley Moss, MD, MPH — UC San Diego Pediatric Resident, prior UC San Diego Medical Student
• Sean Evans, MD — Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education, UC San Diego School of Medicine

Organization:
Center for Mentorship in Medicine

Session Description:
The landscape of medical education has evolved due to increasing pressures on teaching faculty and medical training system requirements, making it challenging to provide patient care while also teaching/mentoring medical students. As such, students have fewer opportunities for directed, individualized coaching and longitudinal formative feedback during clinical rotations. There is also a lack of contextual learning and focus on fostering empathy/compassion.  In response to these evolving challenges, the Master Clinician Program (MCP) was developed in each core clerkship at UCSD. The MCP incorporates third party observation of medical student clinical interactions by seasoned clinical educators, who provide individualized feedback and coaching and deliver educational sessions across the 3^rd year curriculum, with emphasis on the importance of the “art of medicine”, health equity, and compassionate communication.  In this session you will learn about the MCP, how it was implemented at UCSD, and its impact on medical students’ clinical and humanistic skills.

Presenters:

• Cinnamon Bloss, PhD — Director, Center for Empathy and Technology
• Ramya M. Rajagopalan, PhD — Associate Director, Training, Evaluation, and Qualitative Research, Center for Empathy and Technology; Assistant Professor, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science
• Taylor Berninger, MS, MA, MEd, CGC — Associate Director of Engagement, Center for Empathy and Technology

Organization:
Center for Empathy and Technology

Session Description:
The Center for Empathy and Technology's flagship educational program, Seq2Care, aims to fill a critical gap in genomic education, by better preparing healthcare professionals to compassionately and equitably integrate genomics and precision health skill sets into routine patient care. Join us as we share highlights of our innovative experiential course format, review key impacts and training outcomes, and explore future partnership opportunities.

Presenters:

• Lisa T. Eyler, PhD — Director, Center for Empathy and Compassion Training in Medical Education
• Jenna Tutjer, MS, MA, LMSW — Director of Medical Integration, Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion
• Alan Aung — Sanford Scholar and UC San Diego School of Medicine Student

Organizations:

• Center for Empathy and Compassion Training in Medical Education
• Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion

Session Description:
Student research opportunities are abundant in medical schools, but programs focused specifically on empathy and compassion research and building a community of compassion ambassadors are not. To address concerns about waning levels of empathy and compassion levels as students progress through medical school and to combat isolation due to the pandemic and student loneliness, we created the Sanford Scholars program. Scholars propose and implement novel research projects focused on empathy and compassion with a faculty mentor and receive didactic and compassion cultivation training to bolster their skills while building community with fellow medical students. In this session, you will learn more about the program and our research findings. Students will share their stories about how participation in the program helped enhance meaning in medical school for them. You will also discover how your students can participate in a new program modeled after Sanford Scholars called CAmP.

Moderator:

Panelists:

• Celeste Hsu — UC San Diego Medical Student
• Luke Valmadrid — UC San Diego Medical Student
• Shanaya Sidhu — UC San Diego Medical Student
• Nisha Uppuluri — UC San Diego Medical Student
• Haley Moss, MD, MPH — UC San Diego Pediatric Resident, prior UC San Diego Medical Student
• Shamilka Seneviratne — UC San Diego Medical Student

Organization:
Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion

Session Description:

Medical students are the guiding force behind so many of our efforts at the Sanford Institute. Their voices, hopes, and needs inspire us to innovate and to support their novel ideas. Hear directly from medical students and learn about the electives they have developed and facilitated, programs they have participated in, and foundational experiences they have had that have helped change the culture of our medical school at UC San Diego to be more deeply rooted in empathy and compassion. You will have the opportunity to engage with students directly to ask about their unfiltered experiences and the successes, challenges and opportunities they have encountered in medical school.

Presenters:

• Gentry Patrick, PhD — Director, Center for Empathy and Social Justice in Human Health
• Sará King, MA, PhD — Post-Doctoral Fellow in Public Health, Center for Empathy and Social Justice in Human Health

Organization:
Center for Empathy and Social Justice in Human Health

Session Description:
Empathy and compassion are essential to designing inclusive educational systems, spaces, and resources that promote more diverse representation in STEM and the benefits thereof. This engaging session will explore the importance of elevating the lived experiences of belonging and highlighting the impact of how research-based interventions can foster campus community connection. Through this exploration, participants will gain insights as to how institutions can be accountable to the success and well-being of ALL students in STEM and health education, therefore impacting local and global well-being.