The mission of the Center for Empathy in Medicine at the Institute for Innovations in Medical Education is to develop and implement innovative curriculum for enhancing and supporting empathy throughout our healthcare system and especially in undergraduate and graduate medical education. The center’s goals are to develop a workforce of expert educators who can teach and assess empathy, establish a robust research program to evaluate the impact of these efforts, and define best practices in empathy education within an academic health center. The center works in close partnership with the Empathy Project.

The center has four major aims:

• develop a comprehensive program of assessment that focuses on the development and demonstration of empathy skills and practices throughout the education, training, and care continuum and helps to drive empathy as a core value of our learning healthcare system
• establish an interdisciplinary Empathy Fellowship program for faculty leaders in undergraduate and graduate medical education
• implement both short- and long-term evaluations of empathy curriculum that demonstrate impact at the individual and organizational level
• advance our understanding of empathy as a core value and skill within health professions education and training

Our Inaugural Director

Jennifer G. Adams, MD, is the inaugural director of the Center for Empathy in Medicine. Dr. Adams is an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, associate program director of the internal medicine residency, director of the primary care and community health residency tracks, and a preceptor and attending physician at Gouverneur Diagnostic and Treatment Center. Dr. Adams leverages her extensive experience and expertise as a clinician, educator, and researcher to advance the mission and goals of the Institute for Innovations in Medical Education and the Empathy Project, led by Jonathan LaPook, MD. She works closely with leaders across the educational and clinical missions to design and implement a formal curriculum on empathy at the undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education levels.

In collaboration with the Institute for Innovations in Medical Education and the Empathy Project leadership, Dr. Adams will develop a comprehensive strategy to deliver, evaluate, and assess the impact of empathy education at NYU Langone, and also spearhead collaborations to define key education and clinical topics to be addressed and explore emerging technologies to evolve and maximize programming.

Center for Empathy in Medicine Fellowship

The Center for Empathy in Medicine Fellowship program aims to develop a cadre of medical educators who are leaders in empathy curriculum development, implementation, and evaluation at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and nationally. Fellows will focus on designing programs to teach and assess empathy in order to improve patient care delivery, outcomes, and provider wellness.

Our inaugural cohort hails from departments throughout NYU Langone. Learn more about our current cohort.