From Our Blog

By Ron Epstein, MD

In addition to my teaching and clinical work, I lead research teams devoted to helping patients and their families have a voice in their care and helping clinicians develop the skills to communicate effectively,

By Mick Krasner, MD

New Year’s resolutions bother me. Always have. Perhaps that is in part because I have trouble committing to something that I wish to change about myself.

By Ron Epstein, MD

So often we listen to respond, not to understand. As doctors, we are trained to respond; we are doers, we get to the point, take charge and fix.

By Mick Krasner, MD

In many ways, choosing a career in medicine offers opportunities found in a few other professions. It can be described quite simply as the opportunity to work within one’s integrity.

By Ron Epstein, MD

Having recently lost my mother to a long illness, the Orpheus myth speaks to me personally. A different kind of love, admittedly, but the themes of longing, grief, uncertain endings, loss, redemption – looking back and not looking back – sing clearly with me.

By Fred Marshall, MD

I have been thinking about how to create spaciousness in my clinical encounters with patients and their families, and have discovered that focusing on creating space in encounters with myself and my family may be the best place to start. 

By Richard E. Kreipe, MD, FAAP, FSAHM, FAED

As a medical student, I enjoyed pediatrics because it involved paying attention to the ever-advancing developmental capacity of patients.  For example, young infants would play peek-a-boo with me—a total stranger.  Their immature brains were already programmed to recognize my face as human, but unable to realize that I was still present…

By Mick Krasner, MD

If I were to wish for anything I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of what can be, for the eye, which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating as possibility?

Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or

By Ron Epstein, MD

Frequently I am asked to describe how practicing mindfully is integral to good medical practice, yet it is sometimes difficult to put it into just a few words… yet through distractions and daydreaming, putting things off and writing and rewriting, I came to a new clarity. I might not have put it all this way had I been provided the same opportunity even a few years ago. Like all important ideas, it grows and evolves and has a life of their own, and we only catch glimpses of its truth. So, here is mindful practice, with a date stamp, May 2, 2022.

By Fred Marshall, MD

Perhaps for us to engage in compassionate action in the world, we must practice the freedom that comes from gently releasing our narratives and attending as fully as possible to the ever-enduring moment. Perhaps we must come back to our senses.