One-Day Conference Sponsored by CIR Policy and Education Initiative

At "The Art of Medicine: A Physician-Patient Communication Conference" on November 19, 2011 residents learned techniques like motivational and patient-centered interviewing that are closely linked to more effective patient care and increased patient satisfaction.
The foundation of the patient physician relationship is the ability of the physician to communicate well with his or her patient. Diagnostic and therapeutic tools such as “motivational interviewing” to change problematic health behaviors and “patient-centered interviewing” are strongly associated with adherence to treatment, lower malpractice rates and improved clinical outcomes. The tools also improve patient and physician satisfaction, yet they are not routinely included in a resident’s training.
To help rectify this deficit, the CIR Policy and Education Initiative (CIR PEI) sponsored The Art of Medicine: A Physician-Patient Communication Conference on November 19, 2011 at the New York Academy of Medicine.
Drs. Auguste Fortin, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine and Sheira Schlair, Internal Medicine Associate Program Director at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, taught nearly 150 residents, medical students and faculty how to build efficiency and effectiveness through integrated patient- and doctor-centered interviewing. In just ten minutes, a physician can elicit the patient’s entire biopsychosocial story behind the visit, arrive at the diagnosis, and impress upon patients her care and compassion.
Learn the
Five Steps to Beginning a Patient-Centered Medical Interview
“Allowing the patient to tell his/her symptom story is therapeutic,” said Auguste Fortin, MD, MPH. “They don’t necessarily want you to fix everything they tell you about, and they understand and appreciate agenda setting.”

Dr. Robert Schiller, Chair of Graduate Medical Education at Beth Israel Medical Center’s Institute for Family Health, discusses the importance of patient-centered care at the Physician-Patient Communication Conference.
Residents who attended the workshop reported that after being trained to structure their interviews according to this technique, they experienced vastly improved efficiency and control over the interview and greatly enhanced rapport with their patients.
Other experts at the one-day conference spoke on motivational interviewing, resident wellness and overcoming culture barriers.
Speakers included Drs. Jonathan Fader, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine; Robert Schiller, Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at Beth Israel Hospital; Ethan Fried, Internal Medicine Program Director at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center; Andrew Yacht, Internal Medicine Program Director at Maimonides Medical Center; Farida Khan, Attending Physician at New York Methodist Hospital; and CIR resident Girish Nadkarni from St. Luke’s-Roosevelt.
Thanks to a grant from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, the conference was videotaped and the CIR Policy and Education Initiative will produce videos and accompanying educational modules available for viewing by spring. In the meantime, visit the CIR PEI website at www.cirpei.org.
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