Mini-Summits coming to a town sort of close to you!

Do you enjoy seeing people in three dimensions? ‘Cause we last held an in-person Summit on May 16, 2019 and just a few things have happened since then. We’ve got four Mini-Summits this spring to bring us back together! Thank you to our Coalition members who will be graciously hosting us around the state, including Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Care Dimensions in Danvers, Blue Cross in Boston, and UMass in Worcester.

A couple weeks ago, I was on a panel about the intersection of spirituality and serious illness care. I was one of the speakers reacting to a landmark meta analysis, published in JAMA, led by Tracy Balboni, a researcher and radiation oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. It found high quality evidence that spiritual care was broadly associated with better serious illness outcomes. (Probably not a surprise to all of you.) The whole evening left me buzzing on a million ideas, but I was especially struck by two things:

In 2016, the Massachusetts for Serious Illness Care was formed through a collaboration of local healthcare, advocacy, and academic institutions. The mission of the organization is “to strengthen the communication, collaboration, and connection between the healthcare system and communities, and between patients and clinicians, to support what matters most to everyone seeking care, especially people living with serious illness” (MCSIC, 2022). The MCSIC convened a nursing taskforce comprised of faculty and community leaders to strengthen nurses’ abilities and confidence to provide high-quality, inclusive, and equitable care for people living with serious illness in Massachusetts. The goal of this group was to be a leader in preparing and educating all nurses in palliative care and serious illness communication...