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Teaching Communications in HealthCare

Key presenters

Evelyn van Weel-Baumgarten

Evelyn van Weel-Baumgarten,
President, EACH

Radboud University Medical Center, Netherlands

Evelyn van Weel-Baumgarten was a General Practitioner for over 30 years, combining clinical work with teaching and research at the Radboud University Medical Centre in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Since 1987, this has included a focus on quality aspects of clinical communication skills teaching and on various angles of communication in healthcare. 

Until January 2016, Evelyn coordinated the clinical communication skills program for undergraduates at the Radboud Medical School. This longitudinal, integrated program uses role-play, simulated patients (SPs) and feedback by clinicians, SPs and behavioural scientists. During her time coordinating the program, Evelyn developed a quality assurance program for SPs including an SP-assessment instrument (NESP). 

Evelyn was founder and chair of the working party on communication skills of the Netherlands Association for Medical Education (NVMO) for almost ten years. She is (co-) author of more than 70 peer reviewed papers, book chapters, training manuals and programs for various health care professionals on a variety of communication skills related topics as well as on depression, problem solving treatment and medically unexplained symptoms.

Evelyn is President of EACH and an active member of the EACH teaching committee (tEACH) belonging to the sub-group ‘courses and support for trainers’. 

 

Jonathan Silverman

Jonathan Silverman, Past President, EACH

University of Cambridge, UK

Jonathan Silverman is honorary visiting senior fellow and has recently retired as Associate Clinical Dean at the School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge. He was a general practitioner for over 30 years and has been actively involved in teaching communication skills since 1988. In 1999 Jonathan became Director of Communication Studies for the undergraduate curriculum in Cambridge, which now involves over 700 sessions per year.  

Jonathan is best known as one of the authors of the Calgary-Cambridge Guides to the Medical Interview. These guides provide a framework for describing the medical interview and incorporate a comprehensive set of skills referenced to current evidence. They are used in 70% of UK schools. Jonathan has also co-authored two companion books with Suzanne Kurtz and Julie Draper.

In 2005, Jonathan founded the UK Council for Communication Skills Teaching in Undergraduate Medical Education for all 33 UK medical schools. He is past chair of the EACH teaching committee (tEACH) and immediate past President of EACH. In 2015, Jonathan was awarded the Lynn Payer award “for outstanding contributions to the literature on the theory, practice and teaching of effective health care communication and related skills” from the American Academy of Communication in Healthcare. 

 
Marcy RosenbaumMarcy Rosenbaum, Chair tEACH

University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, USA

Marcy Rosenbaum is Professor of Family Medicine and Faculty Development Consultant for the Office of Consultation and Research in Medical Education at the University of Iowa. Marcy has been actively involved in teaching, curriculum development and conducting research on clinician-patient communication for the more than 20 years.

Marcy also has spent her career conducting research and directing programs focused on enhancing medical faculty teaching skills in classroom and clinical settings. She has helped facilitate train-the-trainer seminars throughout the world. Marcy helped found and is current Chair of the tEACH committee. In 2015 Marcy received the President and Provost award for teaching excellence, the highest teaching award conferred by the University of Iowa.

 

Paul Kinnersley

Paul Kinnersley, tEACH Core Planning Committee

Cardiff University, UK

Paul Kinnersley is a Professor and Director of Clinical Skills and Simulation at Cardiff University. He has a career long interest in the teaching of communication and consultation skills and regularly delivers teaching to medical students, doctors and other healthcare professionals. Paul has developed a curriculum, trained clinicians to teach communication skills and has developed and trained a pool of actors to work as simulated patients. He has a close involvement with the clinical assessment programme in Cardiff and has designed OSCE and ISCE stations. Paul also leads the ‘Train the trainers’ sub group of EACH and regularly delivers workshops across Europe.

Paul has also researched and published extensively on doctor-patient communication including shared decision making and motivational interviewing. He has a particular interest in information provision and interventions before consultations to help patients gather the information they need in consultations. He has conducted systematic reviews and both qualitative and quantitative studies.

Paul has recently retired from general practice in Cardiff after 25 years and is continuing to focus on his academic activities.

 

Peter Martin

Peter Martin, EACH Australian National Representative

Barwon Health and Deakin University

Peter Martin is a Palliative Medicine Physician, Regional Director of Palliative Care for Barwon Health and Clinical Associate Professor with Deakin University. Peter has been involved with communication skills training for 20+ years. He has taught communication skills with Monash, Melbourne and Deakin medical schools. Peter has been a tutor with Cambridge (UK) medical school and has maintained links with their extensive program whilst on sabbatical and various courses.

Peter has facilitated for the Victorian & Western Australian Cancer Council, Australian Chapter of Palliative Medicine and Paediatric Advanced Trainee courses. Currently he spends about 70+ half-days per year training, teaching and facilitating communication skills teaching within Barwon Health and Deakin Medical School. More recently Peter has collaborated with colleagues to grow a more formal teaching network and is the Australian National Representative for EACH.

 

Meg Chiswell

Meg Chiswell, tEACH Australian National Representative

Cancer Council Victoria

Meg Chiswell originally worked as a Radiation Therapist before moving into education and is Manager of Education and Training at Cancer Council Victoria.

Cancer Council Victoria runs a communication skills program for health professionals working with cancer patients. Last year, this program delivered 100 experiential communication skills programs to over 800 health professionals.

In addition to health services, Meg has facilitated communication skills programs for RMIT University, BreastScreen, Cancer Council Western Australia, and the Centre for Palliative Care. Meg has also designed and facilitated communication skills training for non-clinicians including volunteers working in cancer hospitals in palliative care, and in information and support lounges. Meg is a member of the European Association for Communication in Healthcare (EACH) and is the Australian representative on the teaching subcommittee (tEACH) for this group.

 

Phyllis Butow

Phyllis Butow, Special Guest Speaker

University of Sydney

Professor Phyllis Butow is Professor and NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney. She is Chair of the Australian Psycho-Oncology Co-operative Research Group (PoCoG) and a co-director of the Centre for Medical Psychology and Evidence-based Decision-making (CeMPED).

Professor Butow has worked for over 20 years in the areas of doctor-patient communication and Psycho-Oncology. She has won many awards, including the International Psycho-Oncology Society Bernard Fox award in 2009 and the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia Tom Reeve award in 2011, and was named NSW Cancer Researcher of the year in 2012. Professor Butow has conducted a large body of research on patient and family support, patient involvement in cancer consultations and decision-making, psychosocial issues in cancer genetics and disparities in outcomes and needs of immigrants with cancer.   

 

Neil Orford

Neil Orford, Special Guest Speaker

Barwon Health and Deakin University

Clinical Associate Professor Neil Orford is the Director of Intensive Care at University Hospital Geelong. Neil is the clinical lead for the i-validate (identifying values, listening, and advising high-risk patients in acute care) program. This collaboration between Barwon Health and Deakin University aims to improve patient-centred end-of-life care through training in clinical communication.

Neil is actively involved in research, and is currently completing a PhD on long-term outcomes of critical illness through the ANZIC-RC, Monash University, and actively involved in the ANZICS Clinical Trials Group. He has philanthropic interests including Board Director for the Intensive Care Foundation, and as an Intensive Care Specialist for Open Heart International Fiji, a volunteer program that provides cardiac surgery for rheumatic heart disease. Neil is a founding member and Director of the educational website Crit-IQ, and Clinical Associate Professor at Deakin University School of Medicine.
 

 

 

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