Poetry in action

Katherine Swan Ginsburg was a member of the BIDMC community as a house officer in the early 90s. Not long after completing her training she died of cancer at the age of 34. Katherine, whose mastery of medical knowledge and technical competence were outstanding, was also widely admired for her extraordinary compassion and selfless dedication in caring for her patients.

Over the last 18 years, Katherine’s family has kept her spirit alive through the Katherine Swan Ginsburg Humanism in Medicine Endowment Fund, which has played a key role in continuing to promote the importance of patient centered, compassionate care here at the BIDMC, something that has long been critical to our unwritten mission of taking care of patients as we would want members of our own families to be taken care of.

Today's lecture was offered by Rafael Campo, a member of our faculty, whom regular readers may remember. He was a key force in organizing this week's events on humanism in medicine, which overlapped the poetry slam mentioned below. His topic was "Cultural Competence: Poetry and the Importance of Voice in the Illness Experience."

Here are some video excerpts of Rafael's lecture. Beneath his video is a short take of some of the art on exhibit as part of the Medical Humanities Week Celebration. If you can't see the videos, click here.