Cleveland Clinic’s Patient Experience: Empathy + Innovation Summit Draws National Experts

Cleveland Clinic’s ninth annual Patient Experience: Empathy + Innovation Summit, will bring together patient experience leaders, healthcare CEOs, policy leaders, designers and innovators from across the country and world to discuss vital healthcare and experience topics, such as technology and innovation, access, quality and safety, and continuous improvement. The summit is being held June 18-20 at the Cleveland Convention Center.

The theme of this year’s conference is Empathy Where You Are and features expert speakers, panel discussions and hands-on workshops. Leaders representing multiple healthcare, technology and design disciplines will explore innovative ways to demonstrate empathy and provide value to patients and caregivers. Attendees will hear how organizations around the world strive to deliver the best clinical, physical and emotional experience to patients and families.

“Healthcare is changing at a rapid pace, creating challenges but also incredible opportunities to meet patients where they are by doing things like innovating with technology, dreaming up ways to use virtual reality, and re-imaging electronic medical records,” said Adrienne Boissy, M.D., M.A., Chief Experience Officer at Cleveland Clinic. “As caregivers, we must constantly be pushing the limits to enhance not only the patient – but the human – experience. At the summit, innovators from a variety of backgrounds will come together to challenge each other to find creative solutions and new ways to practice.”

Featured speakers at this year’s summit include:

• Charity Tillemann-Dick, an opera singer who has received two double-lung transplants, will share her journey and her unique connection with her transplant physician, who faced a health crisis of her own.
• Zubin Damania, M.D. (ZDoggMD), the creator of healthcare-centered satirical music videos, will blend humor and storytelling with an inspiration call-to-action for improving our US medical system.
• Michael Hebb, the creator of Death over Dinner, will share how his global movement has encouraged thousands of people to talk about end-of-life issues while sharing a meal.
• Thomas Lee, M.D., the Chief Medical Officer of Press Ganey, will address how current frameworks for cultivating individual grit and resilience can be applied to teams and healthcare organizations as a whole.
• Preston B. Cline, Ed.D, the director of Misson Critical Team Initiative and Director of the Leadership Venture Program at the Wharton School, has led land and marine Search and Rescue teams, and will talk about how rescuers rescue themselves.
• Leilani Schweitzer, an assistant vice president for Communication and Resolution at TRA Stanford, works in risk management at the same hospital where her son, Gabriel, died after a series of medical mistakes. She will discuss how she uses her experience to navigate between the legal and administrative sides of medical error and the family experience side.

In addition to these speakers, there will be unique sessions and interactive activities including

• “Studies in Empathy:” Choose from a selection of four- to five-minute stories —real-life struggles — that will allow you to practice immersing yourself in the life of another.
• “To Err Is Human” documentary: See a screening of this riveting new film about medical mistakes and preventable deaths.
• 360 Degrees of Ideas: A musical-chairs inspired way to exchange ideas in patient experience.

Last year’s summit drew nearly 1,800 registered attendees from 47 states and 32 countries. To register – or for more information – please visit: http://www.empathyandinnovation.com.