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2 episodes with compassionomics
2 episodes with compassionomics
2 episodes with compassionomics
2 episodes with compassionomics
Can compassion relieve burnout? Is the healthcare professional's cup half empty, half full, or refillable? Can AI help doctors return to better quality patient care? Russ Branzell, CHIME's President and CEO, welcomes Anthony Mazzarelli, MD, JD, MBE, Co-President and CEO, Cooper University Health Care, to CHIME's newest Trailblazers podcast. Dr. Mzzarelli is the author of two books related to compassionate healthcare, Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference as well as Wonder Drug. Together, they unpack “compassionomics”, the data behind this practice, and how it can truly revolutionize the healthcare industry as well as the world. They discuss the importance of connecting with others and being “other-focused” rather than self-focused. They agree that compassion is good medicine, not a “side dish” as it can be taught in medical school. Listen now to learn more about incorporating true compassion into healthcare and the benefits that result.
In this conversation with Dr. Anthony Mazarelli, co-author of “Wonder Drug: 7 Scientifically Proven Ways That Serving Others Is the Best Medicine For Yourself,” EMRACast host Dr. Chris Reilly dives deep into the idea of finding (and protecting) happiness through serving others. Tune in for a whole new approach to a healthy, happy attitude.
Eldercare – and U.S. health care writ large – too often is a cold, impersonal experience for the people both giving and receiving care, as ever-increasing demands for efficiency and profit turn an intimate experience into boxes to check and line items on balance sheets. Dr. Stephen Trzeciak, chief of medicine at Cooper University Health Care and co-author of the book “Compassionomics,” seeks to change that with a simple yet bold assertion: Compassion for others in health care isn't just good for people's emotional wellbeing, but also their physical health and the operational strength of providers. Dr. Trzeciak joins “Elevate Eldercare” ahead of his keynote speaking slot at the first annual Center for Innovation conference, coming to Pittsburgh July 23-26. In conversation with Susan Ryan, he gives an overview of his philosophy and challenges listeners to embrace compassion as the centerpiece of their eldercare practice. Register for the CFI conference – hurry, early bird rates end May 31: https://thegreenhouseproject.org/2023-conference/ Watch Dr. Trzeciak's TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elW69hyPUuI
For the first time ever, The Green House Project and Pioneer Network are hosting a single conference under the Center for Innovation banner, and we want the entire eldercare community to be there! In this week's episode, hear CFI's Penny Cook, Marla DeVries, and Joan Devine talk about the engaging speakers coming to Pittsburgh from July 23-26, including “Compassionomics” co-author Dr. Stephen Trzeciak, groundbreaking dementia researcher Dr. Al Power, and many more! Plus, learn more about the special performance of “A Box of Memories,” a one-act musical about living with dementia coming to Pittsburgh all the way from Australia, and the lineup of special pre-conference sessions designed to give attendees a more in-depth educational experience. Taken together, the first annual CFI conference is all about helping people interested in eldercare reform to connect, engage, and make an impact back home in their communities. We can't wait to see you there! Learn more about the conference and register today: https://thegreenhouseproject.org/2023-conference/ Watch Dr. Stephen Trzeciak's TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elW69hyPUuI Learn more about primary conference sponsor Parker: https://www.parkerlife.org/
Mia Baumgartner, Manager of Spiritual Care & Wellbeing, and the Joy in the Workplace Project at University of WashingtonMedical Center speaks with Spehar-Halligan Professor and CEIE Director, Michael Trice, about the book -Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence That Caring Makes a Difference by Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony Mazzarelli. Mia and Michael discuss compassion as more than empathy.Compassion is an art form, a practice, and leads to a longer and healthier life. It also helps with depression, anxiety and isolation. Take a listen.
Speaking Of Show - Making Healthcare Work for You & Founder's Mission Series
Dr. Stephen Trzeciak says there has long been a compassion crisis in healthcare. In this interview he tells us caring more is a key to reducing burnout, and says there is a ton of supporting data, which he and his co-author Dr. Anthony Mazzarelli share in their books Compassionomics and Wonder Drug. Compassion is a skill that people can learn, and it can be transformational. Dr. Trzeciak is the Professor and Chair of Medicine, Cooper University Healthcare & Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. spent decades working the ICU. He says he often meets people on the worst day of their lives, and by practicing compassion in his work he has experienced many positive impacts. Be sure to check out this interview to hear how practicing compassion can help improve your life and work. Purchase Compassionomics: https://www.amazon.com/Compassionomics-Revolutionary-Scientific-Evidence-Difference/dp/1622181069/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1674599914&sr=8-1 Connect with Dr. Stephen Trzeciak https://www.cooperhealth.org/doctors/stephen-trzeciak-md Learn more about Cooper University Healthcare https://www.cooperhealth.org Topical time codes: 1:02 - Why compassion matters 3:44 - Compassion vs empathy 6:49 - Can you serve without compassion? 8:35 - Stephen's personal story with burnout 14:34 - Changing the mindset of practitioners about compassion 20:20 - Intention behind the actions 26:20 - How practicing compassion has changed Stephen's life __________________________ Thanks to the following organizations for supporting the Making Healthcare Work for You mission. Informed Consulting works with insurance carriers, digital health companies, insurtech organizations, and venture capital firms to drive distribution solutions in the employee benefits ecosystem. They help companies reach revenue potential, confidently navigate a complex ecosystem, and position benefit ecosystem innovations for more efficient growth. Visit https://www.informed.llc to learn more. UpStream is the fastest-growing primary healthcare solution provider in the US. UpStream underwrites and supports the delivery of value-based care for older patients and people living with chronic conditions. By working in partnership with healthcare practices and clinics UpStream offers a comprehensive risk-free solution for physicians that finances, delivers and sustains better outcomes for everyone. Visit https://www.upstream.care to learn more.
Stephen Trzeciak, M.D., MPH: “The key to resilience is relationships.” Stephen, an ICU surgeon and physician scientist, joins mbg co-CEO, Jason Wachob, to discuss how serving others can benefit your health, plus: - How a lack of compassion leads to burnout (~02:27) - How to act upon 9 empathy opportunities every day (~09:49) - How gratitude gives you health benefits (~12:47) - Why you should avoid asking yes or no questions (~18:51) - How to compartmentalize emotionally exhaustive work (~24:39) - The role of hope in the healing process (~35:09) - How the people you associate with can impact your health (~40:32) - How your smile can save a life (~52:31) Referenced in the episode: - Stephen's new book, Wonder Drug. - Stephen's previous book, Compassionomics. - A study showing you have 9 empathy opportunities every day. - A study on volunteering and cardiovascular health. - A study on purpose and longevity. - A study on asking the right questions. - A study on hope and recovery. - Learn more about Thomas Joiner's research. Trigger warning: This podcast includes mentions of suicidal ideation. You're never alone. If you or someone you know are struggling, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org. We hope you enjoy this episode, and feel free to watch the full video on Youtube! Whether it's an article or podcast, we want to know what we can do to help here at mindbodygreen. Let us know at: podcast@mindbodygreen.com.
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Barry Edwards and special guest Physician Scientist , Stephen Trzeciak, MD, MPH discuss… …Wonder Drug: 7 Scientifically Proven Ways That Serving Others Is the Best Medicine for Yourself — Dr. Trzeciak and co-author Dr. Anthony Mazzarelli's new release and follow up to 2019's Compassionomics. Every point in this book is backed by studies. It will irrefutably convince you of how making some subtle (or big, if needed) changes to your daily behavior will have massive impact on your relationships, happiness and career. ORDER ON AMAZON: https://amzn.to/3Rlwh3D
Our guest today is Jessica Ellis-Wilson, CMPE, principal consultant at Practical Management. Jess is an expert in breaking down the barriers of biases in the workplace and in developing successful programs in diversity, equity, and inclusion. One of Jess' goals is for all patients, regardless of their sexual orientation, to have access to competent, inclusive, non-discriminatory physical and mental healthcare. Resources for this episode: • Jessica Ellis-Wilson's website: www.pmalconsulting.com/ • Optum Online Training article: https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payer/optum-launches-provider-education-program-caring-for-lgbtq-patients • OutCare Health: https://www.outcarehealth.org/ • Optum /Outcare collaboration: https://www.optumhealtheducation.com/health-equity/lgbtq-101-2021#group-tabs-node-course-default4 • The Trevor Project: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/ • The Human Rights Campaign: https://www.hrc.org/ • Compassionomics (www.compassionomics.com/) by Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony Mazzarelli • The Empathy Effect (empathetics.com/the-empathy-effect/) by Helen Riess Sponsors: Thanks to Onsite Women's Health and to MGMA events for sponsoring this week's show. Benefits Plus event — As the second-largest expense for most businesses, employee benefits costs impact the financial health of your organization. Gain a competitive advantage by joining MGMA BenefitsPlus for a forward-thinking webinar that addresses cost-containment strategies in employee benefits. The free webinar is Tuesday, June 28. Go to mgma.com/events to register today. Onsite Women's Health — Onsite Women's Health provides healthcare practices and providers with the ability to bring screening mammography in-house. Partnering with Onsite allows more women to keep up with their annual screening and gives anyone impacted by breast cancer a fighting chance. Learn more at www.onsitewomenshealth.com. We'd love to hear from you. Tell us what you think. Let us know if there's a topic you want us to cover or an expert you'd like us to interview. Email us at podcasts@mgma.com. The MGMA Insights podcasts are produced by Daniel Williams, Rob Ketcham and Decklan McGee.
In this episode of the podcast, we will discuss the science behind the benefits of being Other-Focused and of having a Live-to-Give attitude. Our guest is Dr. Stephen Trzeciak, a practicing intensivist, physician scientist, professor, and chair of medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, New Jersey. Dr. Trzeciak is the co-author of “Wonder Drug: 7 Scientifically Proven Ways That Serving Others Is the Best Medicine for Yourself”, a wonderful book soon to be published and the focus of our conversation today. Additional Resources Website for the book: Wonder Drug: 7 Scientifically Proven Ways That Serving Others Is the Best Medicine for Yourself: https://www.wonderdrugbook.com/ Link to previous podcast episode with Dr. Trzeciak on Compassionomics: https://bit.ly/3tqBdJU Curricula for empathy and compassion training in medical education: A systematic Review. Patel s, et al: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31437225/ Need for compassion in prehospital and emergency care: A qualitative study on bus crash survivor's experiences. Doohan I, et al: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25257225/ “Unsung Hero” a beautifully executed commercial of what it means to be Live to Giver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWA2GbcnJU Books Mentioned in this Episode: Man's Search for Meaning. By Viktor Frankl: https://amzn.to/3xv9n1J Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion. By Paul Bloom: https://amzn.to/3MtzXg1
It was a pleasure to once again interview Dr. Stephen Trzeciak. He is a physician scientist, professor and chair of medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, and the chief of medicine at Cooper University Health Care. Dr. Trzeciak is a practicing intensivist, and a clinical researcher with more than 120 publications in the scientific literature, primarily in the field of resuscitation science. He's also the author of Compassionomics, a book about the ROI of compassion in medicine. Today we will talk about his latest book, The Wonder Drug: We will dig deep into this book and how the evidence that proves that the power of serving others can be a life changing therapy for everyone. The Wonder Drug Book: 7 Scientically Proven Ways That Serving Others Is the Best Medicine for Yourself: https://amzn.to/3wgJ5P5 To learn more about Dr. Trzeciak, visit him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephentrzeciak https://www.instagram.com/stephentrzeciak/ KeyNote Speaker: Are you looking for a keynote speaker to teach you how to advocate for your ideas, for change, for your product and for sales. I would love to come and speak to your team and show them how to advocate to win in their business. Please fill out the form below and I will contact you with more details. https://form.jotform.com/221107324351139 To learn more about my services and to stay connected, visit me at: Website: Advocate to Win Instagram: @imheatherhansen Sign up for your 15 Minute consultation:https://calendly.com/advocatetowin/15min Don't forget to Subscribe to the Advocate with Elegance FREE private podcast here: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/613921e87accb4c0210201c5 Would you like to ask me a question? Please leave me a message by calling (856) 390-4831.Don't forget to let me know if we can use your call on the show.
Dr. Anthony Mazzarelli, Co-President/CEO of Cooper University Healthcare and associate dean of clinical affairs for Cooper Medical School at Rowan University, with Michael on his book (co-authored by Dr. Stephen Trzeciak), "Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference." Fun fact: "Mazz" was Michael's first ever intern. Original air date 17 April 2019. The book was published on 30 April 2019.
In this episode I want to look at compassion from the perspective of YOU: how does it benefit you to be compassionate toward other people. The world needs more compassion right now (desperately) and I want to motivate EVERYONE to show more compassion, even if it's only to get the personal rewards of being a compassionate person. My inspiration for this episode comes from the book Compassionomics by Trzeciak and Mazzarelli and I highly recommend it. This episode includes: The definition of compassion. How our compassion can heal others. Why there's always enough time for compassion. Compassionate behaviors. Benefits of being compassionate. How to increase your compassion skills. Get my latest book The Journey from Ego to Soul Support this podcast on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/karen-wyatt/message
In this episode of the MGMA Insights podcast, we're joined by Jessica Ellis-Wilson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicaelliswilson). Jessica is a CMPE, as well as a consultant, speaker, and coach who has found through research that "Many of our daily pain points like isolation, societal disparities and inequities, and systemic bias can be assuaged – if not eliminated – by embracing empathy, compassion, and kindness for ourselves and those around us." Resources for this episode: • Compassionomics (https://www.compassionomics.com/) by Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony Mazzarelli • The Empathy Effect (https://empathetics.com/the-empathy-effect/) by Helen Riess • Blind Spot: Hidden Biases of Good People (https://www.amazon.com/Blindspot-Hidden-Biases-Good-People/dp/0345528433/) by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald • Jessica Ellis-Wilson's website: (https://www.pmalconsulting.com/) Sponsors: Thanks to MDVIP and to CareCloud for sponsoring this week's show. CareCloud's free revenue cycle assessment uncovers billing mistakes, so you can see how to claim every last dollar. Get your free assessment by visiting carecloud.com/assessment. MDVIP's fee-based wellness program provides a better, more personalized primary care experience for patients and physicians alike while providing consistent, stable revenue to your practice. Learn how your group can increase patient satisfaction and loyalty by visiting mdvip.com/patientloyalty If you like the show, please rate and review it wherever you get your podcasts. If you have topics you'd like us to cover or experts you'd like us to interview, email us at podcasts@mgma.com or find us on Twitter at twitter.com/MGMAInsightsPod. MGMA Insights is presented by Decklan McGee, Rob Ketcham, and Daniel Williams. Stay safe and thanks for listening.
Code Orange is medical-professional-themed entertainment, interview, and current events podcast hosted by RN Paige Loewen and PT Ali McClintock. This episode features Gina Gang and Jeff Gang, a married couple who both work at Loma Linda University. They join Paige and Ali for a conversation about their work on Whole Person Care. Read Gina's article here: "The Art of Connection: A Model for Teaching Therapeutic Alliance to Doctoral Physical Therapy Students Within an Acute Care Course" Learn more about Compassionomics, the project by Stephen Trzeciak that Jeff discussed in the show. Get your own 60-question EQ (Empathy Quotient) inventory by Simon Baron-Cohen by clicking this link. - Code Orange is produced by Kristopher Loewen at KL Marketing and design. Recording, editing, mixing, and mastering also by Kristopher Loewen.
Stephen Trzeciak is a physician-scientist and chief of medicine at Cooper University Healthcare, and professor and chair of medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. Stephen specializes in intensive care medicine, and is a National Institutes of Health-funded clinical researcher, with more than 100 scientific journal publications. Currently, Stephen's research has focused on a new field called Compassionomics. And he is the co-author of the best-selling book of the same name, which we are going to dive into in our discussion today. In this week's episode, Dr. Paige Williams speaks with Dr. Stephen Trzeciak about his research into compassion and the difference it can make in organizations. Connect with Dr. Stephen Trzeciak: https://www.compassionomics.com/ You'll Learn: [02:05] - Stephen defines compassionomics [07:20] - Stephen describes what research suggests is the difference Compassionomics makes [10:36] - Stephen explains the impact of compassionomics in reversing the effects of burnout [19:16] - Stephen shares the surprising finding of how long it takes to put Compassionomics into action [22:46] - Stephen outlines the mindset that can help to bring compassionmics to life [29:40] - Stephen explains how we can create cultures of compassion [33:07] - Stephen completes the lightning round Thanks for listening! MPPW Podcast on Facebook The War For Kindness by Jamil Zaki Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post. Please leave an honest review for the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It's free! You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing. Until next time, take care! Thank you, Stephen!
July 12, 2021 Discussion on the book "Compassionomics," English Players Face Racism, Break-ups by Dr. Farid Holakouee
Join Calgary Zone Patient & Family Centred Care consultant Kristy Leavitt in a candid discussion with AHS Patient/Family Advisors Maya Pajevic and Marisa Vigna about why meaningful patient engagement matters, what tokenistic engagement looks like (and why it’s a problem), and much more. Resources mentioned during this episode: o Bird’s Eye View, by Sue Robins o Why We Revolt, by Victor Montori o Compassionomics, by Stephen Trzeciak & Anthony Mazzarelli o In Shock, by Rana Awdish o The Patient Revolution, by David Gilbert Connect with Maya and Marisa on Twitter at @mayapajevic
March 30, 2021 I am joined today with Barbara Khozam: customer service investigator, trainer, and speaker on healthcare communication, the patient experience, and leadership. Barbara and I chat about all things related to dealing with difficult patient interactions and enhancing the overall patient experience. If you liked this podcast, please subscribe, share and leave an honest review. Disclaimer: All views are my own and for informational purposes only. They are not to be viewed as medical advice or training. Please see a licensed professional in this regard. All information is provided in good faith and does not represent the views or opinions of any entity or organization. Resources: www.jennifergeorge.co Read: Compassionomics Guest Social: Website: Barbara Khozam Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barbarakhozam Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bnkhozam/ LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbarakhozam/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BarbaraKhozam Host Social: IG: https://www.instagram.com/bestobsessed_with_jenn/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jenngeorge08 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bestobsessed/ LinkedIN: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-george-25656517
https://www.alainguillot.com/stephen-trzeciak/ According to Stephen Trzeciak, author of Compassionomics, compassion could be a wonder drug for the 21st century. You can find Dr. Stephen Trzeciak at https://www.compassionomics.com/
At the beginning of this year, I had the opportunity of catching up with a VetStaff locum for lunch. We solved all the problems currently facing the veterinary sector and the world.Over lunch, Dr Sam shared a book she'd read called Compassionomics – a book designed to answer a few questions – one of which was “does taking time for compassion make doctors better at their job?”I'm a Kindle woman, so I bought the Kindle version. It's also available in paperback and Audible versions. I'll include all links to where you can buy the book, if you're interested, on the show notes page for episode 17 at PawsClawsWetNoses.fm.The full, official, title is “Compassionomics: the revolutionary scientific evidence that caring makes a difference.”I like meaty books and at 375 pages, this sure gave me something to get my teeth into. The book was published in 2018 by Fire Starter Publishing. Apart from the fact Dr Sam said it was a good book, I bought it because I wondered whether there might be any crossover from human health care to animal health care. While I was reading, there was always a little part of my brain wondering just how much could be transferred to the animal health care sector. I'm sure that plenty could – just in a different way.Some musings I had, for example, were:Could veterinarians, for example, positively impact the health outcome of sentient animals through compassion? What difference would the expression of compassion to the patient's owner make to the health outcome of the patient? If the client felt more compassion towards them, would they be less aggressive towards the veterinarian? Would animal doctors hear fewer emotional blackmail and accusations about not caring otherwise they'd work for free?Purchase it from Amazon:ISBN-13: 978-1622181063ISBN-10: 1622181069KindleAudio bookPaperback[NB: I have no affiliation whatsoever to Amazon] The Roseto EffectCould the learnings here - the Roseto Effect - be applied in veterinary clinics to make a difference?Can community and caring make a difference in veterinary clinics?VetStaff leading veterinary sector recruitment in New Zealand | veterinarians | locums | nurses
Carlos Liz, 66 anos, já avô com quatro netos. É consultor de empresas e coordena o Centro do Conhecimento do Hospital CUF Descobertas. Nesta conversa, Carlos Liz, parte do debruça-se sobre o tema "A Evidência Científica da Ética do Cuidado". Esta reflexão é feita a partir do livro "Compassionomics", de Stefhen Trzeciak e Anthony Mazzarelli, uma revisão de estudos objetivos sobre o impacto da compaixão na terapêutica.
Professor Stephen Trzeciak, Chief of Medicine, Cooper University Healthcare and Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, Camden, New Jersey is co-author with Dr Anthony Mazzarelli of the book Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference. His personal quest is “to make healthcare more compassionate through science.” A specialist in Intensive Care, Stephen's research over a 20-year period had focused on resuscitation science. The trajectory of his life's work changed when he reflected on a question that his 12-years old son had been set as a school assignment: “What is the most pressing problem of our time?” It seemed to him that the most pressing problem of our time, through the lens of his experience as a physician, is the “crisis in compassion.” In the US, for example, 50% of patients believe that neither the healthcare system nor healthcare providers are compassionate. Physicians miss 60-90% of opportunities to respond to patients with compassion. Data from the Mayo Clinic shows that the median time before interruption when a patient is trying to explain their reason for going to a doctor is just 11 seconds. More than a third of physicians suffer from depersonalisation, an inability to make a personal connection. In an era of electronic patient records, physicians typically spend more time looking at a computer screen than looking a patient in the eyes. In partnership with colleague Dr Anthony Mazzarelli, Stephen set himself the challenge of answering the question “So what? Does compassion really matter?” in quantitative terms. 1,000 papers later they had found overwhelming evidence that compassion matters in measurable ways for patients and for medical practitioners. He considers himself “a work in progress.” Contrary to the belief he once held that people were either wired for compassion or they were not, he says there is plentiful evidence that compassionate behaviours can be taught and learnt. Trzeciak and Mazzarelli found that there were 24 different mechanisms whereby compassion could benefit patients. By way of example, if you are compassionate towards your patients you are more likely to be meticulous and less prone to making major medical errors. Research shows that if you are compassionate towards your patients, they are more likely to adhere to the course of treatment. In the psychological domain it might be intuitively evident that compassion for others can modulate the psychological distress of others. Compassionomics references the clinical evidence for this. Stephen has an ongoing research programme at Cooper University Healthcare and Cooper Medical School of Rowan University around the quantification of the effects of compassion in healthcare. He maintains that it is not until you quantify the impact for patients and for those who care for them that compassion will be given appropriate priority. It belongs in the domain of evidence-based medicine. He says “there wouldn't be a compassion crisis in healthcare if we really understood the magnitude of the effect.” As a specialist in intensive care medicine, Stephen routinely meets people “on the worst day of their life” and was a prime candidate for burnout himself. Conventional wisdom might be that he should maintain a certain emotional detachment from his work. But the research reveals a strong inverse association between physician compassion and burnout – “compassion can be a powerful therapy for the giver too.” When you bear witness to pain and suffering you activate the pain centres of your brain, but moving on to compassionate action activates the reward pathways. “Compassion feels good” and caring for others is fulfilling.
Welcome to Reliably Well Podcast. In this episode, we will discuss the book, compassionomics. It's crucial as a medical professional to practice wellness in all aspects of our lives in order to be good clinicians for our patients. This podcast is for medical professionals looking for insight into ways to be more effective for their patients and communities by making sure they are caring for themselves first and thriving in their lives.
In this episode, I spill secrets and talk health with the one and only Dr. Anthony Mazzarelli: The Original Smerconish Intern, Co-President/CEO, Cooper University Health Care, Emergency Medicine Doc and Co-Author of Compassionomics.
Dr. Nathan Regier is pleased to be joined to this episode by Dr. Stephen Trzeciak to talk about compassion research, interesting, relevant and applicable research about compassion in health care. Stephen Trzeciak, MD, MPH, is a physician-scientist, chief of medicine at Cooper University Health Care, and Professor and Chair of Medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, N.J. Dr. Trzeciak is a practicing intensivist (specialist in intensive care medicine), and a National Institute of Health (NIH)-funded clinical researcher with more than 100 publications in scientific literature. In today’s episode you will hear about Dr. Trzeciak’s research which is focused on a new field called “Compassionomics,” in which he studied the scientific effects of clinical compassion on patients, patient care, and those who care for patients. He is the author of the best-selling book: “Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference.” Broadly, Trzeciak’s mission is to make healthcare more compassionate through science. Key Takeaways: [2:41] Dr. Stephen Trzeciak explains what an “intensivist” is. [3:28] Dr. Trzeciak shares how he became interested in compassion. [7:40] Dr. Trzeciak talks about how his research on compassion became a book. [8:20] Why there is a compassion crisis in healthcare. [9:06] Compassion matters in meaningful and measurable ways. [10:35] What is behind the compassion crisis? [11:06] Differences between compassion and empathy. [16:10] ⅓ of Americans admit that compassion is not one of their core values. [17:25] People are emotionally exhausted and they just can’t seem to care. [18:29] Compassionate behaviors can be learned. [22:37] The neuroscience data that supports the distinction between empathy and compassion. [27:58] The best antidote to burnout is more compassion. [31:39] Healthcare providers who show compassionate behaviors build resilience and resistance to burnout. [33:40] The matter of time: It takes less than a minute to make a meaningful impact on a patient. [35:36] The different uses of time and how they are perceived. [37:14] Dr. Stephen Trzeciak talks about the time when he realized he had every symptom of burnout and decided he was going to care more and not less. [41:07] The declaration of interdependence. [42:50] Lighting round. [48:45] Nate’s three key takeaways: Empathy and compassion are different. The antidote for burnout has to be at the point of care. Compassion is an evolutionary advantage. Mentioned in this episode: The Compassion Mindset Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference. Dr. Stephen Trzeciak Compassionomics.com Dr. Stephen Trzeciak’s TED Talk at the University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Stephen Trzeciak is a Physician-Scientist, TED speaker, and Professor of Medicine at the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, who’s dedicated a large portion of his career to helping patients in the intensive care unit. More recently, he authored the book Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference where he studies how compassion impacts patient outcomes. At the core of his research, he asked one fundamental question: Does compassion really matter? It turns out, it does. When authentic, it plays a big role in positively impacting patient outcomes, and I will dare to say that this finding doesn't only limit itself to the medical field. Think of its application in the business world. Within team dynamics. How compassion contributes to company cultures and trust. Tune in to learn about how compassion drives higher returns: What is compassion really? How is compassion different than empathy (and how both play out) The inter-dependency of empathy and compassion How does compassion drive a measurable impact Data shows we are in the midst of a compassion crisis- here's why? Knowing when you are burnt out and how to overcome it The role that being present plays in driving compassion Connect with Stephen Trzeciak: Linkedin Twitter Website TED Talk Stephen Trzeciak's biography: Stephen Trzeciak, MD, MPH is a physician-scientist, Chief of Medicine at Cooper University Health Care, and Professor and Chair of Medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, New Jersey. Dr. Trzeciak is a practicing intensivist (specialist in intensive care medicine), and a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded clinical researcher with more than 100 publications in the scientific literature, primarily in the field of resuscitation science. Dr. Trzeciak's publications have been featured in prominent medical journals, such as: Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Circulation, and The New England Journal of Medicine. His scientific program has been supported by research grants from the American Heart Association, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, with Dr. Trzeciak serving in the role of Principal Investigator. Currently, Dr. Trzeciak’s research is focused on a new field called “Compassionomics”, in which he is studying the scientific effects of compassion on patients, patient care, and those who care for patients. He is an author of the best-selling book: Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference. Broadly, Dr. Trzeciak’s mission is to make health care more compassionate through science. Dr. Trzeciak is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame. He earned his medical degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his Master’s of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He completed his residency training at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and his fellowship in critical care medicine at Rush University Medical Center. He is board-certified in internal medicine, critical care medicine, emergency medicine, and neurocritical care. * * * Full Transcription: Dr. Stephen Trzeciak: Really, we’re asking this big question: Does compassion really matter? Most people in healthcare would say, well, of course compassion matters. We have a moral imperative. There’s a duty. We ought to treat patients with compassion, and of course, I agree. Is compassion just an ought that belongs in the art of medicine, or are there also evidence-based effects belonging in the science of medicine? Tanya: That’s Dr. Stephen Trzeciak, Physician Scientist, TED speaker, and Professor of Medicine at the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, who’s dedicated a large portion of his career to helping patients in the intensive care unit. Dr.
In this episode we speak with Dr. Stephen Trzeciak about compassion in the healthcare system. Dr. Trzeciak is a physician scientist, Chief of Medicine at Cooper University Health Care, and Professor and Chair of Medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, New Jersey. Dr. Trzeciak is a practicing intensivist (specialist in intensive care medicine), and a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded clinical researcher with more than 100 publications in the scientific literature, primarily in the field of resuscitation science. Dr. Trzeciak’s publications have been featured in prominent medical journals, such as: Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Circulation, and The New England Journal of Medicine. His scientific program has been supported by research grants from the American Heart Association, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, with Dr. Trzeciak serving in the role of Principal Investigator. Currently, Dr. Trzeciak’s research is focused on a new field called “Compassionomics”, in which he is studying the scientific effects of compassion on patients, patient care, and those who care for patients. He is an author of the best-selling book: Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference. For this work, he was awarded the 2019 Influencers of Healthcare Award by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Dr. Trzeciak also serves as a member of the Global Compassion Council for the non-profit organization Charter for Compassion. Broadly, Dr. Trzeciak’s mission is to make health care more compassionate through science. Dr. Trzeciak is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame. He earned his medical degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his Master’s of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He completed his residency training at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and his fellowship in critical care medicine at Rush University Medical Center. He is board certified in internal medicine, critical care medicine, emergency medicine, and neurocritical care. Learning Points: • Health Benefits of cacao and a yummy smoothie • What is Compassionomics? • Why is it important in healthcare? • Can compassion be a part of a Western healthcare system? Social Media: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephentrzeciak
Dr. Trzeciak is the co-author of one of the most important books I’ve read in a long time. He and Dr. Anthony Mazzarelli wrote Compassionomics, about the ROI on compassion in medicine. But it doesn’t stop there—listen as we discuss how compassion changes everything. Compassionomics https://www.amazon.com/Compassionomics-Revolutionary-Scientific-Evidence-Difference/dp/1622181069 Dr Trzeciak’s book choices Essentialism by Greg McKeown https://gregmckeown.com/book/ Deep Work by Cal Newport http://www.calnewport.com/books/deep-work/ Dr Trzeciak's song Where the Streets Have No Name U2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FsrPEUt2Dg For information regarding your data privacy, visit Acast.com/privacy
FULL EPISODE EPISODE SUMMARY Conversation with Dr. Mardi Steere about Mission, Leadership, Emergency Medicine and Ebenezer Moments from her 8+ years at Kijabe Hospital. EPISODE NOTES David - So today, I'm talking with Mardi Steere. This is a conversation that I don't want to have. It's about leaving about memories, and about Kijabe.And I don't want to have it because I don't want you guys ever to leave. That is the hardest part of life in Kijabe. But amazing people come and amazing people go and you're gonna do amazing things and stay in touch. First, why don't you give the introduction you gave at the medical team the other day. Mardi - So this is bittersweet for me as well. We came to Kijabe in 2011 and planned to stay for two years and here we are eight and a half years later, taking our leave. And in some ways, it's inevitable. You can't stay in a place forever. It's been a real opportunity for me to reflect. David - Let me pause you real quick there. So when you first came, who is we? And then what did you come to do? Mardi - In 2011, I was a young pediatric emergency physician with an engineering husband looking for a place where we felt like God had said "To whom much is given, much is required," and we knew our next step was to go in somewhere with the gifts and the passions and the exposure and education that we've been given. And so I came as a Pediatrician, and the hospital hadn't had a long-term pediatrician in quite a while. Jennifer Myhre had just joined the team in 2010 and my husband Andy is a civil engineer and project manager, and now, theological educator as well.We moved here with our then two-year-old and four-year-old to do whatever seemed to be next. David - That's amazing. So give the theological introduction to the Ebenezer. Mardi - It comes from first Samuel Chapter 7 verse 7-12, where there's a battle between the Philistines and the Israelites and Samuel lays a stone to God for being faithful and to remember what God has done. When Andy and I got married in 1998, actually, it was a scripture that was read at our wedding. And we were encouraged when these Ebenezer moments come, take stock of them, step back, and acknowledge what God has done . Those moments will be key moments in your marriage. As I was talking to the medical division the other day, I felt like it was just another reminder that, as we have our professional lives and we work in a place like Kijabe and we serve, it's really easy to get caught up day-to-day in the daily struggles that we all have - with life and death and bureaucracy and not enough money and not enough equipment and team dynamics and conflict. But there are these moments when we take a step back and we see what God has done. This hospital has been around for 100 years, and I've only been here for a little over eight of them, but there are so many moments where I look back on where we've come from - and the journey that we've been on - and I see these landmark moments of God intervening. David - How do you see the balance here between medical excellence and spiritual - I don't know if excellence is the right word - between medical excellence and spiritual excellence. I think the origins of medicine were very intertwined with the spiritual, but at least in Western medicine, it's very divorced and I feel like in some ways, what I see happening here is not taught in classrooms anywhere else. Mardi - This is one of those things that I am going to be taking with me for the rest of my life. I don't know who's listening to this, but Americans have a cultural Christianity where it's acceptable in medicine, I think, to ask medical questions and maybe you ask a spiritual question and saying God bless you and bless her heart, and praying for people is somewhat accepted but still it's a parallel track to medicine. In Australia, it's completely divorced. There's almost a cultural fear of discussing the spiritual in Australia, a very agnostic country. So to be a Christian in Australia, you have to make a choice. But then when you go to medical school, it's taught to you almost don't bring that in. This is a science, and one of the things that I love about Kijabe is that they are inextricably intertwined. There isn't a meeting that we start here without prayer. When I'm covering pediatrics, as a clinician, we start with team prayer and depending how busy things are, if you're trying to see 30 patients on rounds, you might pray for the room, as you start. We ask the parents how they're doing, and then we pray for the mom with her permission, and for the baby or the dad or whichever caregiver is there. We ask God to intervene, we ask God to give us wisdom, we ask him to be a part of the science. We ask him to be a part of the conversations. When it comes to the even bigger picture, when it comes to strategically planning the hospital, and our core values again - they're inextricably intertwined, and it's a gift. One thing that I'm gonna take with me as a leader and as a clinician, is that it is not difficult to ask anyone, "What is your world view and what is your spiritual worldview? Because all of us have one in Australia. That world view might be... "I don't believe there's a spiritual realm." That's so important to know. But what if the answer to that question is," I believe in God, but I don't see him doing anything." What an opportunity we miss. What if we have immigrants in our population in our community, and we don't ask them "What is your spiritual and cultural world view? What do you think is happening beneath the surface?" and we don't give someone an opportunity to say without derision, "I think I've been cursed" or "There is a generational problem in my family," and we don't open up the opportunity to intervene in a way that's holistic, much we miss by not intertwining the spiritual and the physical? The fact is every one of our communities has a spiritual world view, and shame on us if we don't explore it with them. David - Amen. It's fascinating here because before coming here, I thought of missions as giving. The longer I'm here, the more I think of it as receiving. When you stop and pray for a family, the encouragement received from those family members is huge. The trust and the love, and you do see people who come in the halls and you ask, "Why are you here?" "Because my doctor will pray for me." Mardi - So what's interesting to me is there are some conversations going on in medicine around the world right now about this "innovative new concept of Compassionomics." And really it's exactly what you're saying, it's not new and it's not innovative. I think that Compassionomics is our fearful way of re-exploring the spiritual. It's taking the time on rounds to say, "How are you doing as a family, how are we doing as a team," and to take the opportunity to draw comfort from each other. It comes from a spiritual foundation, that I think that we've lost, and I think a lot of it comes from burnout and from the way that medicine has become a business and a commodity. We're starting to re-explore through Compassionomics, and I pray through exploring the spiritual, the deeper side of medicine that around the world I think people really miss. David - Right on. Mardi - And if that's not reverse innovation, I don't know what is. David - It's fascinating, this space that Kijabe fills and how we think about it and how we talk about it. I use a phrase - World class healthcare in the developing world - but when I use that, I don't mean that I want Kijabe to be the big hospital in the big city in the West, because there are certain aspects that we don't want to lose. Yes, absolutely, it would be super-cool to be doing robotic surgery, and some of these wild technological things, but really I feel like what Kijabe excels at is not fancy and not glamorous. It fundamentals of medicine. I remember Evelyn Mbugua telling me this one time. I asked her, "What do you think about medicine in general?" "When I have a challenge or when I'm stuck on a patient, I go back to their history." It's fascinating that that's fascinating! Some of the basic fundamentals of medicine are practiced here, just looking at your patient and laying your hands on them and touching them and talking to them. A conversation is both a diagnostic tool and it's actually medicine. If the numbers are true, I know it's different from orthopedic surgery than for outpatient, but, if half of medicine is actually placebo, this stuff is really important to healing. And it's not anti-science. It actually is science to care about people. Mardi - It's interesting when you mentioned the placebo effect. I think that the placebo effect is considered as nothing, but it's not the placebo effect, is actually a real effect. It's that time and conversation and compassion, truly do bring healing and the point of a control trial is to see in a drug-do better than that. But the thing we're doing, already makes sense. It's interesting to me that medicine around the world is getting faster and faster and more and more advanced. Time is money. I think that around the world, we wanna save money in medicine, we wanna do more with what we have, but we're willing to sacrifice time, to make that happen. And why is that the first thing that goes? Burned-out physicians in high income countries, the thing that they love, is when they have to see more and more patients in less and less time because they know what they have to offer is beyond a drug, and beyond a diagnosis and beyond a referral and beyond a surgery. The one of my favorite phrases in medicine that I truly don't understand but want to spend the rest of my life working on it, is a "value-based care." I think to define value you have to define what we're offering. If value is time, then one of the things I think that Kijabe and mission hospitals can continue to pioneer the way in is, "how do we cut costs in other areas but refuse to sacrifice the cost of time and make sure that our impact is helpful for our patients but that also helps our team members and our clinicians receive the value that comes from being a part of a meaningful conversation. I think that's what patients want too. They don't want the robotics, they come to us because they're helpless vulnerable and afraid, and those are the things that we're treating. They trust what we tell them and if we don't have the time to build up that trust, we've lost a lot of the value that we offer. David - What have you seen change about team? You guys have been part of this big culture change process, but I think it's something that's started long before long before either of us. What do you see is the arc of Kijabe and the archive teamwork and the arc of culture? Mardi - So, Kenya is an incredibly multicultural and diverse country and Nairobi is high-powered and it's fast and it's a lot of white-collar and highly educated people and Kijabe is not so far from that. I think we operate more in a Nairobi mindset than a rural, small town mindset, but that's actually been a huge transition, I think, is going from presenting ourselves as a rural distant place to a part of a busy growing rapidly advancing system, and so that comes with leadership styles that become more open and more I guess, more modern in style. And so that's been the first big thing that I've just seen a huge jar over the part of the decade that I have been here is that leadership is no longer just top-down, enforced. It's participational leadership and I'm a massive fan of that. Leaders do have to make hard decisions and make things happen, but the input of the team has become a much, much higher priority in the last decade. And that's huge because our young highly-educated, highly-aspirational team members have got some great ideas and shame on us as leaders, if we don't take the time to listen to their approach to things. So that inclusive style of leadership has has been a huge arc. And then I think the other thing is just our changing generations, millennials are not confined to high-income countries. We have a young generation of people here who aren't gonna stay in the same job for 40 years like their parents or their grandparents did, and that's the same globally. And so we've had to question, over the last decade, how do you approach team members who are only gonna be here for a little while? Do you see that is, they're just gonna go, or do you get the maximum investment into them and benefit out of them in the time that they're gonna be here and then release them with your blessing? And so that's been something that's been huge for me is when we've got these new graduate nurses or lab staff radiographers, to not be on the fact that three years after they come to us, they go it's to say, "You know what, we've got these guys for three years, let's sow into them, let's get the most we can out of their recent education... Let's do what we can to up skill them with the people that we've got here and then let's release them all over Kenya to be great resources for health care across the country and across the region. David - I would say, for healthcare and for the gospel. I've been wrestling a lot with what does it mean for Kijabe is to be a mission hospital. I think the classic definition - I don't know if we define it as such, I don't often hear people say it out loud, but I think it's an unwritten thing - that what makes a Mission hospital a Mission Hospital, is that it cares for the poor. Hopefully on some level, or on a lot of levels, that will always be true at Kijabe. But I'm really excited about the possibility of what you just described, that if these guys are here for three or four years and we are to training them with the attitude that they are going out as Christian leaders and as missionaries to these parts of Kenya that honestly, you and I will never touch. And a lot of the places I've never even heard of. But if we're equipping them to be the light that's the huge opportunity that Kijabe has to be missional. Mardi - This is a much, much longer podcast, but defining mission is really really important, isn't it? I think that there's a couple of things that stick out to me as you're talking and one is that, I think mission has a history that can be associated with colonialism. And one thing I love about my time in Kenya is seeing that we are a globe of missionaries. The church that we attended in Nairobi, Mamlaka Hill Chapel, these guys would send mission teams to New Zealand, which is fabulous. It's not that lower middle income countries are receiving missionaries anymore. All of us need the gospel, all of us need the full word of Jesus and when you're spreading the gospel, what are you spreading? I think that this is a much longer conversation, but I believe that we are called to go and make disciples we are called to serve the sick, we are called to serve the poor, we are called to serve those in prison. I focus on the parable of the sheep and the goats, it is one of my life scriptures, "when you are poor and sick and needy whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me." And what I hope for Kijabe does is that for whoever passes through our doors, whether it be patient, whether it be staff member, this is who we are, we love Jesus and we want you to know this incredible King who gave so much for us and who has an eternal life for us that starts now. And eternal life starting now means making an impact and restoring that which is broken, and it means restoring it now, wherever you are. As our team members go out to work in other hospitals, I would hope that one of the indicators of success for us would be a lack of brain drain, because it would show that we've shown people, "You know what there are people here that need you in healthcare. And this is why I'm here." If I had wanted to be an evangelist rather than a health care missionary, I should have stayed in Australia, for less people in Australia know Jesus that in Kenya. But I felt like my call in mission was to serve the sick in a place where I could help other people do the same. That's been my passion here, but I'm called to go back to Australia now. Does that mean my mission life is over? Absolutely not. It means that I'm going back to Australia to love Jesus and serve sick there and to do it in a different way. And I think that understanding that all of us, whoever is listening to this podcast right now, wherever you you have a call to mission, it's that sphere of influence that God's put you in. It's to take care of the poor or the sick, or to love the wealthy, who are lost around you that are never gonna step foot in a church but need a love of Jesus every bit as much as one of our nursing students here in the college. David - Amen again, that's fantastic. So back to Ebenezers, back to the the stones. What are things come to mind as you look back over on your time at Kijabe that were hallmarks or turning points? Mardi - There's a few of them. One evening sticks out to me because it's so indicative of the bigger picture and what we've been working towards. I'd been here for about nine months or so. . . One of the things that Jennifer Myhre and I noticed is we started out on pediatrics was that our nursing staff were incredibly passionate about their kids, but no one had really had the time to teach them about sick kids and how to resuscitate them, just basic life support, because they were so overwhelmed. You know, there was one nurse who was taking care of 12-15 patients at a time. That ratio is now one to eight, so it's much easier. But they just hadn't had the opportunity to learn some of the basic life-saving assessment in resuscitation skills, and so we started doing just weekly mock resuscitations with the nurses and as we got to know each other and they got to trust me and to know that I wasn't there to, to judge them, but to try and help them, we would do mock recesses every week, and people would stop being scared of coming and would come with by interested and actually came to test their knowledge. When I started in 2011, about once a week I would get called in, in the middle of the night to find a baby blue and not breathing, who was dead, and there was nothing that I could do. But what we worked together on was setting up a resuscitation room, and setting up the right equipment. And so after about nine months of this, I was called in for yet another resuscitation in the middle of the night, and by the time I got there, the baby was just screaming and pink, and I asked the nurse is what had happened and it was the same story as always, this baby choked on milk, they had turned on the oxygen given the baby oxygen done some CPR and they resuscitated that baby before I got there, they didn't need me at all. And the Ebenezer for me was the was the pride on their faces. "We are experts at this and we know what we're doing." That has just escalated leaps and bounds. Now we've got outstanding nursing leadership and they're being equipped and taught and up-skilled every day. But that was an Ebenezer moment for me that the time taken to build relationship and team and invest doesn't just bring a resuscitated baby and life is important, but it builds team and it builds ownership and pride in "this is what I've been called to do, and I'm good at it." It's interesting because it's what you would do is individual doctors with your teams and doing the mock code. But it's also very much a systems process for Kijabe hospital, right? A big part of solving that challenge was getting the right nursing ratios, but also setting up high dependency units to where children you're concerned about could be escalated. Did that happened during your time here? Mardi - So when we started here in 2011, children weren't really admitted to the ICU at all unless they were surgical patients who just had an operation, and then the surgeons would take care of them and transfer them down to the ward. So the pediatrics team wasn't really involved in any ICU care, extremely rarely. We didn't have a high dependency unit. And our definition of high dependency unit, here, is a baby that can be monitored on a machine 24-7. This is something that shows you how reliant we are on partnerships, David. So for example, the nursing and the medical team together decided, "Look, we think we need a three-bed unit, where at least the babies who were the more sick ones can be monitored on machines." And so, Bethany kids were the ones who equipped... We turned one of our words into a three-bed HDU in the old Bethany kids wing, and that was the first time we could put some higher risk babies on monitoring so that if they deteriorated we knew about it sooner. And we saw deaths start to drop, just with that simple thing. The other thing was that pediatricians who worked here in the past weren't necessarily equipped in how to do... ICU care. And so Jennifer and I said, "Well I'm a Peds-emergency physician, and she is an expert in resource-poor medicine, between the two of us, we can probably figure this out." We started putting some babies in ICU who we knew had a condition that would be reversible if we could just hook them up for 24 hours to ventilator. So we started ventilating babies with just pneumonia or bronchiolitis. Or sepsis, that was the other big one, something that if you can help their heart beats more strongly for a day or two, you can turn the tide. And so we just started working with the ICU team to say, "Look, can we choose some babies to start bringing up here? And four years later we were overtaking the ICU at the time and that's why we had to build a new Pediatric ICU, which opened in 2016. All of these things are incremental, and we stand on the shoulders of giants. The Paeds ward existed because a surgeon said "I don't want babies with hydrocephalus and spina bifida to not get care." And then we came along and said "We think that's great, but we think that babies with hydrocephalus spina bifida, who also have kidney problems and malnutrition, should probably have a pediatrician care for them." And over time, that degree of care, that we've been able to offer has just grown and grown. And we had Dr. Sara Muma as a pediatrician join us in 2012 then Dr. Ima Barasa - she was sponsored into pediatric residency long before I got here. That was the foresight of the medical director back then, to say "We are gonna need some better pediatric care". And then I stepped into the medical director role and people like Ima and Ariana came along and they've just pushed it further and further and further. None of us are satisfied with what we walk into, and we keep saying we can do better because these kids deserve more. David - That's fantastic, I think that's another way when you think about the influence and the impact of Kijabe, it's that refusing to settle. It's to say, "Yeah this is possible. Let's figure it out." And for all the team members to say that and commit to it, and for the leadership to support that I think that's what makes Kijabe special. I read something that the other day, it was just an interesting take, someone said [to a visiting doctor] "Why are you going to that place? It has so much." But Kijabe only has “so much” because the immense sacrifice of so many people over so much time. None of this showed up without the hours and the donations and years and years and years of work. I remember you saying that about Patrick with his ophthalmology laser? How did you phrase that? Mardi - Patrick, he's such a wonderful example of the kind of person that doesn't look for reward, but sees a need and just walks to the finish line. He started out, I believe, on the housekeeping team in the hospital. He's been here for 20 years at least, I think, and then went through clinical office or training, which is a physician assistant level training, and then received higher training in cataract surgery. He started our ophthalmology service in 2012. Since then he had nurses trained around him. He's been doing cataract surgery, and then he said, "We've got these diabetic patients and the care we offer isn't good enough, we need a laser." He went to Tanzania, and got laser training, and now he's going to start doing laser surgery on patients with diabetic retinopathy. He refuses to be satisfied with the status quo. And that's the heritage that we have here. You know, talking about even a moment I feel them enormously privileged to have been here in 2015 as we as a hospital celebrated our centennial. It took us a year to prepare for that, and I know you were a part of that process, David. David's job was find all of the stories and all of the photos and interview all of the people and make sure to document everything that might be lost if we lose these stories now. Being a part of that process... I was in tears so many times when we would hear one more story about somebody's commitment and sacrifice. We've been able to write down that story from 2015, with the Theodora Hospital as we were known then. The stories of not just these missionaries but these extraordinary early nurses, like Wairegi and Salome who worked here for decades, who were initially trained informally, because we didn't even have accreditation for the nursing program. David - We didn't even exist as a country. Mardi - That's a really good point! To hear those stories and to see our very first lab technician was just amazing. And then when these 80 and 90-year-olds came over and saw the scope of the hospital as it exists now, it just gave me a glimpse into whatever we do today, we have no concept of 100 years from now, the fruit that that will bear. And I think a missional life, is like that, isn't it? It's being okay with not seeing fruit. There's foundations positive and negative, that all of us lay in the interactions and the work that we do and I think all of us, our prayer is that those seeds that we plant would bear fruit. We have to be okay with not seeing the fruit with saying this has been my contribution. I've stood on the shoulders of giants and now I hand over the baton to you, who will come after me. Make of it what you will. It's not my dream and it's not my goal, I've done my part, and let's see where God takes it through you. David - And so, very shortly, you're about to become a giant. [laughter] I really appreciate you, I appreciate you bringing that up. That was one of the most important things that could have ever happened. It was in the 2015. It was before we started Friends of Kijabe. The realization for me I always come back to how long life is. It's both amazingly short and amazingly long. Watching Dr. Barnett and realizing that he worked here for 30 years, and then went back to the states, so now he's... I think he just hit 102 years old. It really does bring in a clear view what is legacy, what does it mean and what are we building? But also that this is very much outside of us. We get to pour everything we have into it for a time, but then others will take up that work. And it's both humbling, and amazing and... Mardi - And I think it's helpful to as many of us have a sense of calling on our lives, I think that this is what God has for me now. But we have to hold that with open hands because our view and our understanding of what God is doing is so small and what he is doing is so large. I think sometimes in this kind of setting, you come in with a dream and a passion and a goal, but you see that path shift and change during the time that you're here and that is good and that is okay. I think a danger is when we come in and think that we have the answers or we know exactly where God is going, and then things don't work out, and we burn out or are bitter or disappointed. To come into a sense of mission and calling... Saying "not my will but yours be done," and to just obey in the day-to-day and to see where it goes and to be okay with the direction being different at the end than it was at the beginning - I think that's how we lead a life led by the Spirit. We hold these things with open hands and say, "God take it where you will" and if it's a different place, let me just play my part in that. David - Okay, I gotta dig into that cause. How do you balance that? I would frame it as vision. I feel like a good example to look at, I don't know if it's the right one, so, you can choose a different one if you want to, but the balance between vision and practicality and reality. Because you say that, and you are walking in the day-to-day, but I just think of the Organogram that has been on your wall, which was on Rich's, wall, which is now your's again, which is about to be Evelyn's wall. And you had this vision back in, "this is how I think the organization should work to function well." But there's a four-year process in making that come to pass. How do the day-to-day and the long-term balance? Mardi - I think we're talking about spiritual and practical things combined aren't we? I think that anyone who's in organizational leadership knows that you, your organization as a whole needs a trajectory and a long-term plan. We make these five-year strategic plans which are based on the assumptions of today and every strategic plan. You need to go back every couple of years and say, Were those assumptions right? And just to be a super business nerd for a minute, you base things on SWOT analyses and you base things on the current politics and economics. David - What does SWOT stand for? Mardi - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Then you do a PESTLE analysis, you look at the politics, you look at the economy, you look at the social environment of the day, etcetera etcetera. In technology everything is changing quicker than we can keep up with. And so I think that when you're looking at a place like a happy, which is large and complex, you set yourself some goals, and you work with them, but, you know, so something's going to change. Politics are gonna change, the economy's gonna tank, maybe there's gonna be a war on the other side of the world and we’re the only source of this, that, or the other?Maybe India falls into the sea and we start doing all of the surgeries that India was doing? I just don't even know. One thing for me, I've been enormously privileged to have been the medical director for two different terms that were separated by two years. And so I think I have a slightly unique perspective because from 2013 to 2016, I set the way I thought that our division would work and I came back into the role, two years later and already it had changed, but Rich had made it a better. It's funny, I when I came into the role, my predecessor. Steve Letchford said, "Look, you're gonna need a deputy, you can't do this by yourself." And I looked at my team and said "Um, No, I need four deputies, four sub-divisional heads because this is too much for one or two people and I can't keep my ear to the ground without it. I came back after two years away and there were five deputies and my initial gut reaction was, "You changed my structure!" And then I realized that Rich and Ken had made a really wise call. It did have to be five deputies for lots of really good reasons and that team of five has been my absolute rock this year. David - Who is the team of five? So the team of five, I've got a head of inpatient medicine and pediatrics, and specialties and this George Otieno. There's a head of Outpatient Department, and Community Health and Satellite clinics, and that's Miriam Miima. I've got ahead of Surgery and Anesthesia, and that's Jack Barasa. There's a head of Pharmacy, and that's Elizabeth Irungu. Then there's a head of what we call Allied and Diagnostic that incorporates the Lab and Pathology, Radiology, Physiotherapy, Nutrition and Audiology, and the head of that, it is Jeffrey Mashiya who is a radiographer. What's amazing to me about that is when I instituted this framework in 2014, there were four people and they were all missionaries. And I've come back in 2018 and there are five people and they're all our Kenyan senior staff and they're extraordinarily talented and any one of them can stand in for the medical director, when the medical director is away. What a gift that has been. David - I can't imagine how important this is for continuity. Because you think right now, you're handing off your responsibilities to Evelyn, but she has five people that...those are the executors and they actually get to groom her in leadership. That's amazing and for the strength of Kijabe and the stability, it's indispensable. I don't think there's another way to build a strong, stable system other than to build that. Mardi - Yeah, that's actually one of the things that brings me so much joy as I leave is the team isn't going to notice too much the change in senior leadership because that level of day-to-day practical strategic and operational leadership is just so strong. I think it made Ken as my CEO, I think it made his job easier to say, "Look, who should fill the position that Mardi is vacating?" He was able to say, "Who's got institutional memory and who's got leadership expertise and wisdom, and who knows how the senior leadership team works?" Whoever that person is, they're gonna have a team around them that will mean that no voices get lost in the transition. When I took the job in 2013, hearing the voices of specifically missionaries and surgeons can be really noisy and you hear their voices, but who's listening to the head of palliative care and who's listening to the head of laboratory who's listening to the head of nutrition, which is a tiny team of four people, those voices are well represented by wise people who all listen to each other and make the system work around them. It's a tremendous gift and there's no way to do this job without a team of people like that around you. And you know what, that's one of my other Ebenezers, David. Thursday, we installed Evelyn as the incoming medical director. Seeing those five sub-divisional heads praying for Evelyn and as that took off, I will never forget that. David - Absolutely. I wasn't here the first time, but I remember I should print out a series of those [pictures] because I remember you handing the hat to Rich and I remember it going back to you and then watching you give Evelyn the hat and stethoscope. There's this legacy of people that care. It's interesting to think about... 'cause you are, I mean you’re building this remarkable team and your system and things that operate independently of you. But at the same time, you're unbelievably special, and have given a ton over the past years and you. As Rich phrased it, you walked in shoes that not many other people will get to walk in. It's special. I imagine is what it's like when the former presidents get together for their picture. There's things that only only you guys will know and only you guys will have experienced. Mardi - You know, one thing that is really special is I think a lot of leadership transitions come through pain, brutality and war. And one thing that I noticed on Thursday, is that in the room as I handed over leadership to evil and were Steve Letchford and Peter Bird, who have both been here for decades and who've previously been the medical directors. I think there's a beauty about the transition of leadership here in the clinical division that it hasn't come through attrition, war and burnout. I'm leaving with a lot of sadness, and I'm not cutting ties with this place to see. . . there has been a cost. Rich. I know, I would still love to be here in this position as the person who is my predecessor…but to see such strength of leadership that is here and sowing into the next generation rather than leaving when they died. They've stepped down and gone into leading other areas to ensure that the team that follows them is strong, I think that's a tremendous gift and something unique about Kijabe. People love this place and they love this team and they wanna be a part of its ongoing success in its broader mission. David - And they love and they love that above their own glory and their own desires. I think it's what makes an organization great, it’s what makes a country great. I think it's probably gonna be easier in a place of faith, honestly, that this is God's ministry, not our own, not any one persons's. FPECC What is FPECC? I think it's important for people to know a little bit about how hard is it to create a training program or anything new in Kenya? Mardi - So FPECC is the fellowship program in pediatric emergency and critical care. Ariana [Shirk] and I are pediatric emergency physicians, we trained in pediatrics, and then we did specially training in how to take care of emergencies and resuscitation. And were the only two formally trained pediatric emergency doctors in Kenya. Critical Care is taking care of kids in ICUs and currently in the country, there are four pediatric ICU doctors for 55 million people. I don't have the stats that my finger tips, but it's extraordinarily low. I think of the city where you live and how many ICU beds there are, and how many children's hospitals you have just in your own city if you're based in a high income country. For 55 million people, there's kids just can’t access that care. David - Recently, I'm sure it's gone up, but two years ago, it was 100 beds for the country. Mardi - For adults and kids. . . In the country, there are a 12 pediatric ICU beds. Actually no, that's not true, there are 16 and eight of them came into existence, when we opened up our Peds ICU here three years ago. David - And keep in mind, this is East Africa, of the 56 million people. . .33 million of those are under age 18. So 16 beds. Mardi - That's right. Think of anything that can cause a critical illness. Trauma, illness, cancer, you name it, that's not enough beds. So when I came to Kenyo, I had no dream of starting a training program that wasn't even remotely on my radar. But sometimes things just come together at the right time. It was actually University of Nairobi, where they have the only other Peds ICU, they had been working with University of Washington in Seattle to say, “Look, can you help us start some training?” This is really important, because in East Africa there is nowhere that a pediatrician can learn how to run an ICU. Think of the US, where every state has got multiple training programs, where pediatricians will spend three years to learn to be an ICU doctor. There is nowhere for 360 million people in this region to learn how to do ICU care for children. Just think about that for a second. 360 million people... No training program. There's one in Cairo, and there's one in Cape Town, but that's for 600 million people. So I'm just taking a few of them where there's nowhere to go. University of Nairobi was talking to Seattle. They've got two Peds ICU doctors in Nairobi and they were thinking of starting a program. Then just through several contacts, actually through the Christian mission network, one of University of Washington's ICU doctors grew up in Nigeria but she's involved with the Christian Medical and Dental Association, and so she knew about Kijabe. The University of Washington team came out to Kenya for a visit, and they said, "Hey we heard you doing some ICU care caring Kijabe. Can we come out and see what's happening?" That was in 2013. They came out and said "Hey what are you guys doing here?" And we showed them around, and their minds were blown, they didn't know there was any peds ICU happening outside of Nairobi at all. And so, we rapidly started some conversations and said "Look, why don't we start a training program in Pediatric Emergency Care and Critical Care and our trainees can train at both Kijabe hospital and Kenyatta hospital in Nairobi and they can get an exposure to two different types of ICUs. They can also take advantage of the fact that Ariana and I are here as Peds Emergency faculty, and we can split the training load. Training programs in the US have dozens of faculty for something like this, to rely on just two doctors in Nairobi was an incredible risk even though University of Washington is supporting with visiting faculty. So we said, "Look, we've got all these people in the country at the same time, let's just try and do it." So we started that process in 2013. We took our first fellows at the beginning of this year. It's taken us six years. That's how things work here. You've got to form relationships. University of Nairobi didn't know us real well when it came to our pediatric care. We had to get to know each other, we had to develop a curriculum. We had to let the Ministry of Health know. We had to get the Kenya pediatrics Association on side. The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board, had to approve the program. The University Senate had to approve the program. We had to try and get some funding in place. None of that happens quickly. It's all relationship that's all a lot of chai. That's all a lot of back and forth and making sure that you don't try and skip anything to get through the hoops, any quicker than you need to, because if you try to go to quick it falls apart. And if University of Nairobi and Kenya doesn't own this program, it's not gonna last. And I think that's probably the first thing to take away for me is this program exists because University of Nairobi and Kenya wanted it I didn't come in here and say, "We need this.” University of Nairobi wanted it, and we said, "How can we support it?" And so Arianna showing up here for a short-term visit - which we rapidly recruited you guys as long-term - it was God's timing because Ariana and I couldn't have done this independently from each other. It's taken both of us to build those relationships over the last six years. Arianna and I are so proud of this program. Our first two graduates will finish this training at end of December 2020, and we hope and pray that we can recruit them to stay at Kijabe and University of Nairobi as our first home-grown faculty. What's been lovely about that, too, is that we've connected with people all over the world who want to support this kind of thing, they just didn't know how. David - Not did they not know how, there wasn’t a way. It literally did not exist until February 2019. Mardi - So now, we're actually talking to colleagues in Uganda and Tanzania, and colleagues in Sudan and other places about... “Hey, is this a good model for you?” I've got some contacts in Nigeria, they've got how many million people, 30 million people or something ridiculous? And there's no way to get this training there either. And people all over the world want to be able to support what a country wants to start in its own strategy. So that's something that I'm just thrilled to be leaving. Even as we leave next month, I'm hoping and planning to come back at least once a year to teach in the program for the forseeable future and to support Arianna from a distance in continuing to connect people all over the world to say, "Here's a way that your global health desires can interface with a local country's needs." David - You two are the only Peds Emergency Medicine doctors in the country and there's a realization. . .What actually is Emergency Medicine here and what is the difference between what it looks like here versus America? Mardi - Yeah, it's a really great question. First of all, Ariana and I trained in a country where there are multiple children's hospitals per city. So, Pediatric Emergency Medicine is the Emergency Department attached to a children's hospital. There are less than 10 children's hospitals on this entire continent, I think. So there are no Pediatric Emergency departments. What is really great is that Emergency Medicine combined adult and pediatric is a growing specialty here. There's been so much great work that's going on in so many countries around the region. Rwanda last year, just graduated their first class of emergency residents. Uganda just on the cusp, the great advocate there, Annette Allenyo is leading the charge for emergency medicine. Ben Wachira is an Emergency Medicine trained doctor here at Agha University, and they're on the cusp of starting an emergency medicine residency training program. You know Emergency Medicine's a funny thing. Emergency medicine in a high-income country, is a part of a functioning system. Emergency medicine in the US means that you've got ambulances that get your people to you and you've got an ICU at the other end that you send sick people to. Emergency medicine here is. . . people showing up on our door step, we don't know how to get them here and then where do we send them? I think that Emergency Medicine training here is so much more broad. We're training people not only how to provide Emergency Medicine, but how to be advocates in a broader system. And I think if you live in a high income country, you can't understand how much medical training is not about medical training. It's about advocacy and building access to care for people, no matter where they're at. What I see emerging here is…from the start, it's collaborative. Emergency Medicine training here isn't just training a doctor in a specialty to give you a certificate and leave you there. It's connecting you with people who are trying to get paramedic systems going and people trying to build ICU care. That's one of the reasons we realized that our Pediatric Emergency and Critical Care program had to be both. There's not enough places to work where you've got the luxury of staying in the ICU. Our graduates are gonna go out and work in hospitals where they will be expert trainers for the pediatricians running the ICU and the family medicine doctors running the emergency department and the surgeons who are doing pediatric surgery with just general training. Our graduates are gonna be those advocates drawing teams together asking "How can we improve the system from arrival at our doorstep till the day we send them home." It's a different focus in our training. Yes, the skills are necessary. You need to know how to run a ventilator and keep a heart pumping when it's not. But it's about building a team and being a part of solving systems issues and hopefully in a way that is affordable and sustainable. David - I love that word, systems. For me, this is the year of systems. Thinking broadly about each of these individual parts because it’s another way that healthcare here is very different from healthcare in the US. The US is just sub-specialization, that's what it's all about. And here, there's not a fine line between. . .for an Emergency Medicine doctor, you're not sitting out in casualty waiting for a kid to come in, right? If you want to find the emergency, you just walk around and lay eyes on every kid and there's gonna be one out of 70 children in that building, who is in trouble. So it really is a bigger and broader way of thinking about things. Mardi - I think another thing that's interesting to me just as we come back to the missional aspect of who we are... I think 00 years ago, a missionary was someone who would go into deepest, darkest wherever and be whoever they wanted to be. I think as we consider what is global mission, our question needs to be, “What is that country looking for, what systems are they trying to develop and how do we help them in it?" And that comes down to health…if you're a missionary, what does the local church want to do? What is their mission and how can we assist them? I think we need to ask better, what system is someone trying to build and how can we be a part of it. Because that's the key, isn't it? We're here to serve God who is restoring creation and he's doing it in lots of different ways already. We don't need to necessarily think we've got the answer, but to say "God, where are you working and how can I be a part of it, and what does it look like?" I think Mary Adam in her community health project, is a really lovely example of that. Community Health growth is a priority of Kenya. So she's gotten grant funding and she is just sowing in it, she knows every county Governor in the country, I'm suspecting. She knows how to get into the system, but how to be salt and light, and how to be the love of Jesus in making things functional and making all things new. I think that's one thing that I think Kijabe is doing well. We are looking at health strategy and saying How can we be a part of it and love that our FPECC program is in partnership with University of Nairobi. I love that our clinical offices have a program that we got accredited for called the Emergency Critical Care Clinical Officer program, that actually wasn't a part of hell strategy, but we did see a gap, and as soon as we trained people in that we went to the Clinical Officer of Council and said, "Hey you want to accredit this? This is a really good program. And they did, and now the Kenya Medical training training college has taken that program and they're doing their own program. I think those are lovely examples of saying “We're here to bring restoration but we don't want to be separate from the system. Where are you going and how can we help” David - What does that mean for friends of Kijabe? How do you see that working with Friends of Kijabe as an organization? Mardi - What's been really lovely, about Friends of Kijabe in the last year, and I know you're excited about this, David, is in what the core the Friends of Kijabe vision and mission. I think a core part of Friends of Kijabe that we've got the CEO, the CFO and the Director of Clinical Services on the Friends of Kijabe board. One question that I've heard you ask so many times in the last year is "Where are you going and how can we help, what are your priorities? Friends of Kijabe exists to help the hospital further its strategy, but also exists as a bit of a connector between people in high-income countries who really want to contribute and who have passions. Where does that intersect with the hospital strategy? So Friends of Kijabe is not going to take the whole hospital strategy and try and piecemeal help every part of it. They're gonna say, "Hey you're a part of your strategy that are happy resonates with and that's become very clear. A lot of Friends of Kijabe funding currently goes towards whatever the hospital thinks is important. The hospital has prioritized the theater expansion project this year and that's great. But, at its core, Friends of Kijabe also says, "We support the needy. We support education. We support sustainability. How can we get there?" And so [FoK] has prioritized putting money towards each of those areas which happened to align with the core values of Kijabe Hospital. So a large proportion of what Friends of Kijabe hospital is doing this year is helping us with an infrastructure project. But every year we're going re-ask "What are your priorities, and how can we help that?" But we're also going to say, "Here is where our heart beats. Can we help with this too?" I think one of the things about Friends of Kijabe is the trust that's developed since its inception. As Friends of Kijabe, we trust that the hospital leadership is following a strategy that is meaningful, that is sustainable, and that is in line with where Kenya is going and where the African Inland Church is going because that's who we're owned and operated by. As long as our missions intersect, I think Friends of Kijabe can trust that at the hospital is taking us in a good direction. David - Awesome, anything else I should ask you? Anything you'd like to add? Mardi - No. It's been an extraordinary eight years and it's been such a privilege to be here, and it's lovely to leave with joy, even as there's associated sadness. I really can't wait to see what the next few decades bring, and I'm gonna be watching both from a distance and also up close, when I come back to visit. David - Thank you Mardi.
Second City Works presents "Getting to Yes, And" on WGN Plus
Kelly talks to Doctors Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony Mazzarelli about their new book Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence That Caring Makes A Difference.
Stephen Trzeciak, MD, MPH is a physician scientist, Chief of Medicine at Cooper University Health Care, and Professor and Chair of Medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, New Jersey.Currently, Dr. Trzeciak's research is focused on a new field called “Compassionomics”, in which he is studying the scientific effects of compassion on patients, patient care, and those who care for patients. He is an author of the best-selling book: Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference. Broadly, Dr. Trzeciak's mission is to make health care more compassionate through science. Dr. Trzeciak is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.
In this episode of Critical Matters, we discuss “Compassionomics” with Dr. Stephen Trzceciak. Dr. Trzeciak is a practicing intensivist and prolific researcher. His research interests have focused recently on the hypothesis that compassion matters for patients, for healthcare outcomes, and for providers. Compassionomics is the revolutionary field of science focusing on caring, and the impact compassion has on healthcare. Additional Resources: How 40 Seconds of Compassion Could Save a Life: https://youtu.be/elW69hyPUuI Compassionomics: Hypothesis and experimental approach: http://compassionomics.net Article Mentioned in This Episode: A Patient’s Story: http://www.theschwartzcenter.org/media/patient_story.pdf
Jennifer explores the impact of disbelieving or devaluing a patient’s experience. In particular, she contrasts this with new evidence showing the positive impact on patient outcomes that comes from providers showing compassion. Highlights include: A great new book you should read: Compassionomics by Anthony Mazzarelli and Stephen Trzeciak The stunning impact of a single, specific sentence to convey compassion The question of how active disbelief affects patient care The intersection of disbelief and de-valuing the patient Why “Do no harm” is also about how we interrelate with people Leading with Health is hosted by Jennifer Michelle. Jennifer has a Master’s in Public Health and Epidemiology and is a certified EMT. As President of Michelle Marketing Strategies, Jennifer specializes in healthcare marketing. She is on a mission to help women find their voice so they can create a stronger, more responsive healthcare system. If you’d like to learn more about Jennifer’s work with healthcare companies, visit michellemarketingstrategies.com and sign-up for a free consult.
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