The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence That Caring Makes a Difference

This Global Read was held on Monday November 8, at 12 p.m. Pacific Time
 

Watch a recording of the program here

A 34-year-old man fighting for his life in the Intensive Care Unit is on an artificial respirator for over a month. Could it be that his chance of getting off the respirator is not how much his nurses know, but rather how much they care?

A 75-year-old woman is heroically saved by a major trauma center only to be discharged and fatally struck by a car while walking home from the hospital. Could a lack of compassion from the hospital staff have been a factor in her death?

Compelling new research shows that health care is in the midst of a compassion crisis.
But the pivotal question is this: Does compassion really matter?

In Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference, physician scientists Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony Mazzarelli uncover the eye-opening data that compassion could be a wonder drug for the 21st century.

Now, for the first time ever, a rigorous review of the science - coupled with captivating stories from the front lines of medicine - demonstrates that human connection in health care matters in astonishing ways. Never before has all the evidence been synthesized together in one place.

You will see compelling evidence that:

• Compassion has vast benefits for patients across a wide variety of conditions
   
• Missed opportunities for compassion can have devastating health effects
   
• Compassion can help reverse the cost crisis in health care
   
• Compassion can be an antidote for burnout among health care providers
   
• 40 seconds of compassion can save a life

After seeing all the evidence, the answer is crystal clear: Compassion matters...in not only meaningful but measurable ways.

About the Author

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. He 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, which has been featured in numerous media outlets such as CNN, NPR, and The Washington Post. For this work, Dr. Trzeciak was awarded the 2019 Influencers of Healthcare Award by The Philadelphia Inquirer. 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 of Public Health degree 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 at Chicago. He is board certified in internal medicine, critical care medicine, emergency medicine, and neurocritical care.

About the Host

Charles Barker MD, MPH, ThM, is the former Chair of the Charter for Compassion and is founder and president of Compassionate Dallas/Fort Worth, a non-profit organization that promotes the Charter for Compassion, the value of compassion and compassionate action in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, using the Golden Rule as operating principle.

He is currently president of Compassionate DFW and moderator of the Board of Directors, a board representing all twelve sectors of the international Charter and encourages and coordinates the Community Campaigns, as well as partnerships in the DFW area. His background and experience is in the field of medicine, with emphasis in preventive medicine and biomedical ethics, frequently facilitating medical school ethics sessions at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He is currently authoring a book centered on being and becoming excellent, a series of reflections.