How improv actors are helping doctors break bad news — with Dr. Anthony Orsini and Dr. Tanganyika Barnes

The Orsini Way has been helping train doctors on handling patient relationships for a number of years, and New Jersey's Englewood Health has been a long-time user of the innovative teaching method. But last year, as doctor-patient interactions overwhelmingly went online, already difficult patient-doctor interactions became even more fraught. In today's episode, host Jonah Comstock welcomes Dr. Anthony Orsini, founder and president of The Orsini Way and Dr. Tanganyika Barnes, program director for internal medicine at Englewood Health, to talk about their novel training approach and how they have had to adapt it in response to COVID-19 and the telemedicine boom.This podcast is brought to you by Twilio.Talking points:What the Orsini Way is and how it came aboutThe deficit in communication training for physicians, especially around delivering bad newsHow the program has worked at EnglewoodWhy the program uses professional improv actorsThe importance of one-on-one instruction and self-reflectionCommunication training as a form of medical simulationThe long affects of delivering news badlyHow the program was adapted for telehealthWhat not to do when delivering bad newsROI of trust and communicationWhere do we need to go vis a vis patient empathyMore about this story:The Orsini WayEnglewood HealthDifficult Conversations (Dr. Orsini's podcast)Clinicians' empathy must not be sidelined by virtual care technologiesConveying empathy through digital tools requires education, supportPatient advocates: Tech can help improve experience, but empathy is most importantHIMSS and Cleveland Clinic's Patient Experience Digital Series