Vicki Kennedy's Reflections on Compassionate Care

I had the pleasure of hearing Vicki Kennedy, the wife of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, give a very moving speech at the 8th annual Celebration of Women in Healthcare hosted by the Kenneth Schwartz Center on May 26. Mrs. Kennedy spoke eloquently, but more importantly authentically from her heart, when she reflected on her caregiving journey and the healing power of compassionate communication between providers and patients. Click here to read an article about the event.

Medicine in the Age of Twitter

Dr. Pauline Chen poses an interesting question in her NY Times article, Medicine in the Age of Twitter: Does online social media help or hinder patient-provider communication? If you haven't heard about Twitter, it is a new social media platform that allows users to communicate via short, 140 characters or less, "tweets" to other users. I am intrigued about the possibilities of connection, but am wary of the lack of human touch. What do you think?