Our Mission
To promote relational learning for healthcare professionals that integrates patient and family perspectives, professionalism, and the everyday ethics of clinical practice

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Where We'll Be

Featured Film

We are pleased to announce we recently developed the educational film "Organ Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD)" in partnership with the New England Organ Bank. If you are interested in learning more about this film, please contact Allyson McCrary, the Program Coordinator, at allyson.mccrary@childrens.harvard.edu.

PERCS Rounds

On Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 12pm at Children's Hospital Boston, IPEP's Director, Elaine Meyer, and Senior Scholar, David Browning, will facilitate PERCS Rounds. This monthly forum for Children's Hospital Boston employees is an opportunity for hospital staff to engage in interdisciplinary discussion and learning about challenging questions in everyday professional practice. This month's topic is "Civility, Incivility, & Bullying: Strategies and Potential Solutions." If you are interested in learning more about this event, please contact us.

Featured Article

"Accountability for Medical Error: Moving Beyond Blame to Advocacy" was recently published in CHEST. Sigall Bell, IPEP’s Co-Director of Patient Safety and Quality Initiatives, is the lead author. The paper discusses the "mismatch" between a systems perspective on patient safety and an individual approach to accountability. The authors suggest that a shared system of accountability in medicine can improve patient advocacy, safety, and care. Download the article

Recent Publications

"An interdisciplinary, family-focused approach to relational learning in neonatal intensive care" was recently published in the Journal of Perinatology. The paper is co-authored by Elaine Meyer, Dara Brodsky, Anne Hansen, Giulia Lamiani, Debbie Sellers, and David Browning. The article documents the educational impact of a one-day workshop for NICU practitioners. After attending the course, participants reported improvement in their preparation, their communication and relational abilities, and in their overall confidence in taking part in difficult conversations in the neonatal setting. Download the article

Giulia Lamiani, EdM, MS, a Fulbright Scholar who spent two years working with IPEP, is the lead author of "Cross-cultural adaptation of an innovative approach to learning about difficult conversations in healthcare." The article, which was recently published online in Medical Teacher, describes the implementation and efficacy of the PERCS model in an Italian hospital. Download the article

"Learning that leads to action," co-authored by IPEP Senior Scholar, Dave Browning, was the featured article in the April issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. The paper demonstrates how relational learning across boundaries can result in real improvements in the care of critically ill children and their families. Download the article

"Microethical and Relational Insights from Pediatric Palliative Care," authored by IPEP’s Senior Scholar, David Browning, was featured in the July issue of Virtual Mentor, the American Medical Association’s online ethics journal. The commentary explores what mainstream medicine can learn from efforts to improve the care of children with life-threatening conditions and their families. Download the article

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"Part of why I’m really glad that I’ve taken time to work in health care before becoming a doctor is that so many doctors go straight to medical school and their first real experiences in healthcare are from the perspective of someone with an MD. They never see/hear/experience other roles where the respect of others is less automatic. I thought the only problem with the talk today was that not enough people came to hear what you had to say. Thanks for such a useful learning opportunity!"

- Recent participant, PERCS Rounds

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Sigall K. Bell, MD awarded a Gold Professorship

"The voices that most need to be heard in healthcare are too often those least likely to speak - patients, family members, clinicians-in-training, and staff who occupy the lowest rungs of the hierarchy. What conversations addressing humanism and its impact on patient safety should be happening, but currently are not?" These are the words of Dr. Sigall Bell, IPEP’s Co-Director of Patient Safety and Quality Initiatives. As a Gold Professor, Dr. Bell will teach and mentor trainees, create patient-centered curriculum and conduct research to improve patient care. Read more

Medical Error Book Published

We are pleased to announce the publication of Talking with Patients and Families about Medical Error. The book is authored by IPEP Executive Director Robert Truog, MD and IPEP Senior Scholar David Browning, MSW, with co-authors Judy Johnson, JD, and Thomas Gallagher, MD, and includes a forward written by Lucian Leape, MD. Published by Johns Hopkins University Press in December 2010, the book is a guide to innovative education and thoughtful clinical practice in this challenging area of clinical and organizational practice. To read more, or for ordering information and discount, click here.

Our book will soon be available in Italian! Stay tuned for more information…

Medical Education Book Published

We are delighted to announce the publication of A Practical Guide to Teaching and Assessing the ACGME Core Competencies, Second Edition. IPEP’s Director of Academic Programs, Elizabeth Rider, MSW, MD, authored the book with co-author Ruth Nawotniak, MS, C-TAGME. David Leach, MD, former Executive Director of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), wrote the foreword. The book provides research, best practices, strategies and tools for teaching and assessing the core medical education competencies required for residency programs, many medical schools, accreditation organizations, and specialty and licensing boards in the US and internationally. To read more, or for ordering information and discount, click here.

Excerpt from Newsweek Article featuring IPEP

"Patients are exposing harmful experiences and mobilizing on the Internet. Some doctors are humanizing the problem by talking publicly about mistakes they committed, defying the pervasive fear of lawsuits and professional shame. And hospitals are creating educational programs for staff. Harvard’s Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice developed an interactive workshop focused on the difficult conversations that arise after mistakes occur; more than 500 doctors, nurses, and other specialists have been trained so far, and the program is now being offered to other health systems nationwide. 'Everybody is interested in learning how to do better,' says Dr. Robert Truog, the institute’s executive director. 'We’re still very much on the steep part of the learning curve.'"

IPEP Receives Medical Education Award

At its 2010 spring retreat, The Academy at Children's Hospital Boston honored IPEP with the Medical Educator Award for Innovative Scholarship in Medical Education. The award recognizes outstanding medical education initiatives by members of The Academy. IPEP’s Director, Elaine Meyer, Senior Scholar, David Browning, Director of Academic Programs, Elizabeth Rider, and Executive Director, Robert Truog, were all honored. Elaine and Elizabeth were present to accept the award (as pictured, Elizabeth on the left and Elaine on the right.