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Compassion-Driven Medicine Initiative Offers Timely Opportunity for Culture Change in Healthcare
Compassion Institute™ Announces Joint Initiative to Transform Medical Education with University of California San Diego (UCSD) in New T. Denny Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion.
HALF MOON BAY, CA., July 22, 2019 — Compassion Institute, a global compassion education advocate and provider, is to partner with UCSD’s new T. Denny Sanford Institute to make compassion-driven medicine a reality.
This new Institute will be the first organization to integrate scientific inquiry with evidence-based compassion training, providing skills and tools tailored to medical students and practicing physicians. This new education model will be known as The Sanford Method™ in honor of T. Denny Sanford, whose generous financial commitment has made the initiative possible.
The Compassion Institute will work closely with members of the scientific and teaching staff of T. Denny Sanford Institute to research and develop innovative compassion-based programs for integration into the medical school curricula, and support practicing clinicians everywhere.
“The Compassion Institute is honored to be collaborating with UC San Diego and the T. Denny Sanford Institute in this integration of best-in-class compassion education programs and scientific knowledge around empathy and compassion,” said Dr. Thupten Jinpa, founder and chairman of Compassion Institute. “The potential for wide-reaching benefits for practicing medical professionals, and positive impact on patient care continues to be our inspiration for this work,” he added.
“We have an unprecedented opportunity to bring significant change to how we approach medical education and the front line of patient care,” said William Mobley, M.D., Ph.D., associate dean of neuroscience initiatives, a long-time advocate for the empirical study of compassion and interim director of the new institute. “We are delighted that Compassion Institute, as a key partner and collaborator in this endeavor, will bring its domain expertise to both content and delivery of our education programs.”
“By the deliberate introduction of compassion education at key points in physician training, The Sanford Method will, we hope, contribute to a positive culture in the profession, at the same time as alleviating stress, burn-out, empathic distress, and other challenges,” added K.C. Branscomb, executive director of Compassion Institute.