The Bucksbaum Institute Clinical Excellence Award

📢 Announcing the 1st Annual Bucksbaum Institute Clinical Excellence Award

What is The Clinical Excellence Podcast?

The Clinical Excellent Podcast, sponsored by the Bucksbaum Institute for Clinical Excellence is a biweekly podcast hosted by Drs. Adam Cifu and Matthew Sorrentino. The podcast has three formats: discussions between doctors and patients, discussions with authors of research pertinent to improving clinical care and the doctor-patient relationship and discussions with physicians about challenges in the doctor-patient relationship or in the life of a physician.

[00:00:00] Dr. Cifu: We're back with another episode of The Clinical Excellence Podcast, sponsored by the Bucksbaum Institute. Usually, on this podcast, we speak to patients and doctors about all aspects of excellence in clinical medicine, but today we have a little bit of a special episode to discuss a new Bucksbaum Institute Clinical Excellence Award.

And I'm joined by Dr. Matt Sorrentino and Joni Krapec, who's the lead administrator for the Bucksbaum Institute. Matt, to start, it's been a long time since you and I talked on this podcast, since the very beginning. Could you just remind us a little bit about the Bucksbaum Institute, sort of what it is for everybody who's been listening to the podcast all this time?

[00:00:41] Dr. Sorrentino: Sure. Thanks, Adam. It really is exciting to talk about the Institute. The Bucksbaum Institute was established now 12 years ago in September of 2011, and it was designed really to look at all aspects of the doctor-patient relationship. It has really continued to broaden and deepen its impact on both the academic center here and our patient communities at the University of Chicago.

And just let me remind you about some of the original goals of the Bucksbaum Institute. It wanted to develop programs that would improve patient care and strengthen this doctor-patient relationship. And I wanted to do that by enhancing communication, talking about shared decision making in healthcare between patients and doctors, strengthen the personal humanistic components of patient care and patient relationships, and also really to look at healthcare disparities and try to reduce healthcare disparities.

And it's done it through a lot of different ways, both direct mentoring and coaching of our physicians, but also research, establishing, money and pilot grants and really just getting the word out like this podcast, getting the word out about how we can improve the doctor-patient relationship.

[00:01:58] Dr. Cifu: Great.

And I guess we're working to get the word out even more than we have in the past this year by launching this new Bucksbaum Institute Clinical Excellence Award. The idea behind this is to recognize physicians who've sort of lived up to the Bucksbaum mission, people who've displayed exceptional dedication to clinical excellence and the advancement in the doctor-patient relationship.

Joni, you've been a huge force behind this. Can you tell us something about the award? Kind of what are we looking for?

[00:02:28] Ms. Krapec: Absolutely. So we're looking to identify and come to know physicians at academic medical centers across the country who are embodying the spirit of Bucksbaum, so that we can elevate their presence and elevate their work.

So when we thought about our selection criteria, we wanted to make sure that it reflected our mission. So we're looking for individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to providing exceptional patient care and fostering a very strong doctor-patient relationship. Someone who has really a good track record of meaningful connections with both patients and students.

So establishing a culture of mutual respect and shared decision making. Someone who has really active involvement in mentoring and guiding aspiring healthcare professionals, sort of nurturing their growth and development. Someone who has either active participation or leadership roles in initiatives or research that's aimed at addressing healthcare disparities and promoting equitable access to quality care.

And then again, a strong research background that really aligns with our mission. So certainly work that encompasses clinical excellence, ethical practice, education, public policy, that they're really seeking to investigate questions that are a shared importance to the Bucksbaum Institute.

[00:03:48] Dr. Cifu: I love the way you said that at the beginning, that the idea behind the award is kind of to bring attention to someone who's living this in their work and almost, you know, amplify both their achievements and their importance to hopefully help, I think, both at their institution and even nationally, uhm, make people more aware of this?

[00:04:10] Ms. Krapec: Yes, absolutely.

[00:04:12] Dr. Cifu: Uh, so, Part of the reason for this podcast, maybe the entire reason for this episode of the podcast is to get nominations. So what do people have to do? How do people come to our attention, I guess.

[00:04:24] Ms. Krapec: Absolutely. So, um, the entire application process is on our website. It's under the resources section.

So it's pretty easy to find there and to be considered for the award someone needs to have a nomination letter submitted on their behalf, along with a comprehension CV. We certainly want the nomination letter to speak to why this person would be a good fit for the award. So to sort of explicitly address how their accomplishments match the criteria for the award.

Once we have all of our nominations with the deadline of December 1st —for those nominations to come in. Our selection committee will go through and identify probably a handful, four or five finalists that we will then reach out to and invite them to submit an additional two letters of support in support of their application.

[00:05:16] Dr. Cifu: Great, great.

[00:05:17] Dr. Sorrentino: And Adam, if I may interject a little bit, we want to, of course, recognize some of these wonderful individuals who are promoting the doctor-patient relationship, but we want to learn from them as well. And so one of the things that we would like to ask the winner to do, is to come to the Bucksbaum Institute at our annual symposium and give a talk or give a lecture and meet with some of our Bucksbaum associates.

And we can learn from them. So, part of the award is a trip to the University of Chicago Bucksbaum Institute where we will learn from them and hear about their great work that they're doing.

[00:05:58] Dr. Cifu: This is a little bit of one of those give and take awards, right? We're going to give you some money, we're going to give you travel here, we're going to ask you to meet with some people to give a talk and also probably to write an article that has to do with whatever the awardee does that relates to the mission of the Bucksbaum Institute that will help to get published. So I think it should be exciting for everybody, for the awardee, for us, for the institution that the awardee comes from. Really excited about this effort.

[00:06:30] Ms. Krapec: Absolutely. And I assume given your podcast work, you would also perhaps want to interview this person for a special episode of the podcast?

[00:06:36] Dr. Cifu: Why, absolutely! Just one more reason to throw your name in the hat.

Okay. Well, thank you very much for joining us for this special brief episode of The Clinical Excellence Podcast dedicated to The Clinical Excellence Award. Please feel free to reach out to us with your thoughts and ideas via the Bucksbaum Institute webpage or on Twitter. The music for the Clinical Excellence Podcast is courtesy of Dr. Maylin Martinez.