Buddhist inspired resources for physicians and other health care professionals.
Posted in Neuroscience, The Bodhisattva Ideal, Tibetan Tradition on Apr 12th, 2010
A new Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education has been launched at the School of Medicine, with the aim of doing scientific research on the neural underpinnings of these thoughts and feelings.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, provided $150,000 in seed money for the center—the largest [...]
Posted in Compassion, Medical Education, Medical Ethics, for nurses on Apr 9th, 2010
AACN Advanced Critical Care
Volume 20, Number 1, pp.108–111
Cynda Hylton Rushton, RN, PhD, FAAN
Do you ever notice how difficult it becomes when you are embroiled in an
ethical conflict to stop long enough to reflect on your own motivations,
much less the motivations of others? Or how easily we begin to create our own
story about the situation, often [...]
Posted in Hospice, Palliative Care, Prison Outreach, Social Action / Engaged Buddhism, The Bodhisattva Ideal on Apr 9th, 2010
In Dharma in Hell, prison activist and meditation teacher Fleet Maull shares his journey of transformation and service amidst the anger, violence, darkness and despair of a maximum security federal prison. This collection of previously published and unpublished writings from his 14 years behind bars vibrates with kindness, hope and the [...]
Posted in Burnout, Compassion, Mindfulness in Medicine on Sep 25th, 2009
from JAMA, 2009 Sep 23;302(12):1284-93
Krasner MS, Epstein RM, Beckman H, Suchman AL, Chapman B, Mooney CJ, Quill TE.
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, USA. michael_krasner@urmc.rochester.edu
CONTEXT: Primary care physicians report high levels of distress, which is linked to burnout, attrition, and poorer quality of care. Programs to reduce burnout before [...]
Posted in Compassion, Neuroscience on Aug 9th, 2009
from PLoS One. 2008 Mar 26;3(3)
Regulation of the neural circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation: effects of meditative expertise.
Lutz A, Brefczynski-Lewis J, Johnstone T, Davidson RJ.
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America. alutz@wisc.edu
Recent brain imaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have implicated insula and anterior cingulate cortices in the empathic response [...]
Posted in Compassion, specific medical conditions on Aug 9th, 2009
from Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2009 Jan;34(1):87-98
Pace TW, Negi LT, Adame DD, Cole SP, Sivilli TI, Brown TD, Issa MJ, Raison CL.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Winship Cancer Institute, 1365C Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Meditation practices may impact physiological pathways that are modulated by stress and relevant to disease. While [...]
Posted in Compassion, Research/Evidence-Based Medicine on Jul 25th, 2009
Recently published in the journal, Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2009 Jul 15
Pace TW, Negi LT, Sivilli TI, Issa MJ, Cole SP, Adame DD, Raison CL.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Winship Cancer Center, 1365C Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30322, United States.
Increasing data suggest that meditation impacts stress-related physiological processes relevant to health and [...]
Posted in Angry Patients, Burnout, Compassion, Medical Education on Jul 12th, 2009
Expressing Humanism in Each Medical Encounter
Ami Schattner, MD
Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(12):1095-1099.
Humanistic behavior is considered an essential component of professional medical care. However, the evidence shows that it is often neglected. Many barriers to the expression of sensitivity to the patient’s concerns and empathy and compassion in the clinical encounter can be [...]
Posted in Angry Patients, Compassion, Medical Education, Uncategorized on Jul 12th, 2009
The Care of the Patient
Francis Peabody, MD
JAMA. 1927;88(12):877-882
“The most common criticism made at present by older practitioners is that young graduates have been taught a great deal about the mechanism of disease, but very little about the practice of medicine—or to put it more bluntly, they are too “scientific” and do not know how to [...]
Posted in Compassion, Medical Education, Mindfulness in Medicine, Prison Outreach, Social Action / Engaged Buddhism, Zen Tradition on Feb 5th, 2009
(Aug 14, 2009 — Aug 19, 2009 at the Upaya Institute and Zen Center, http://www.upaya.org/programs/event.php?id=196)
Using the Five Buddha Family Mandala as a base, we explore practices, processes, and perspectives on how the capacity for servant-leadership is culitivated by bearing witness to the charnel grounds of life. This brave practice forms the base for socially-engaged practice, social change work, and peacemaking.
Servant-leadership [...]