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Meet the Team |
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- Dara Brodsky, MD, Physician Facilitator, PERCS-NICU
- David Browning, MSW, BCD, FT, Co-investigator, PERCS
Senior Scholar, Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice
- Meg Comeau, MHA, Parent Facilitator, PERCS
- Anne R. Hansen, MD, MPH, Physician Facilitator, PERCS-NICU
- Elaine C. Meyer, PhD, RN, Director, PERCS
Director, Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice
- Brigid O'Connor, Performing Arts Consultant, PERCS
- Robert C. Pascucci, MD, Physician Facilitator, PERCS
- Elizabeth A. Rider, MSW, MD, Physician Facilitator, PERCS
Director of Academic Programs, Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice
- I. David Todres, MD, Physician Facilitator, PERCS
- Robert D. Truog, MD, Principal Investigator, PERCS
Executive Director, Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice
- Pamela Varrin, PhD, Parent Facilitator, PERCS
- Erin Ward, MsEd, CAS, Parent Facilitator, PERCS-NICU
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Dara Brodsky, MD is an Instructor of Pediatrics and has been an Associate Director of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) since August 2004. She is very involved in medical student education. Currently, she is a tutor in the 6-week Integrated Human Physiology class for first year medical and dental students at Harvard Medical School (HMS). In 2005 Dr. Brodsky became a core faculty member in Culturally Competent Care at HMS, involved in curriculum development and small group sessions. She teaches an "Introduction to Newborn Medicine" to all HMS students during their Pediatric Clerkship, providing a 1-hour interactive overview. Since 2001, she has been a co-director of the Newborn Medicine Summer Student Research Program at Children's Hospital Boston, recruiting 10-20 students per summer, devising the clinical curriculum, and teaching some of the interactive clinical tutorials.
Dr. Brodsky is the co-author of Neonatology Review (Brodsky D, and Martin C. Philadelphia: Hanley & Belfus, 2003) and is currently co-editing a textbook Primary Care of the Premature Infant, which is a clinical guide for primary care providers who care for premature infants after they are discharged from the hospital. Dr. Brodsky is also collaborating with Dr. Doherty to develop a simulator program using the SimBaby (Laerdal, Inc) to enhance the clinical assessment, technical performance, and teamwork skills of clinicians caring for newborns. She is interested in measuring improvements in patient safety following simulator-training sessions. Dr. Brodsky is the leader of a NICU Team Training Committee at BIDMC, which has developed a curriculum that will improve communication, encourage peer support, emphasize leadership skills, and develop situation awareness in the NICU. By training all clinicians in the NICU about teamwork, this committee aims to improve patient safety, staff satisfaction, and patient/family satisfaction.
Finally, she is designing a web-based radiology teaching file for diseases of the newborn, in collaboration with Children's Radiology Department and Dr. Camilia Martin. This self-directed teaching tool emphasizes the specific radiographic findings, pathophysiology, and differential diagnoses of common neonatal diseases.
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David Browning, MSW, BCD, FT is Director of the Initiative for Pediatric Palliative Care, an international educational project for health care professionals aimed at bringing compassionate and culturally respectful care to children with life-threatening conditions and their families. He is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Applied Ethics and Professional Practice at the Education Development Center, Inc. in Newton, Massachusetts, and serves as Senior Scholar for the Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice and as Co-investigator for the Program to Enhance Relational and Communication Skills (PERCS), both at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School.
He is a current recipient of the Social Work Leadership Development Award from the Project on Death in America, and recently received an appointment from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine to serve on its College of Palliative Care Council, whose mission it is to promote leadership development in interdisciplinary palliative care education and research. His research and publications have focused on advancing grounded theory in bereavement and en-of-life care, cultivating reflective practice for clinicians in their engagement with suffering, and promoting transformative learning as a strategy for enhanced professionalism and organizational change.
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Meg Comeau, MHA is one of the parent faculty members of the PERCS program. She is the director of a federally-funded national project called the Catalyst Center: Improving Financing of Care for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs at the Boston University School of Public Health. Ms. Comeau has a master's degree in Healthcare Administration from Simmons College.
She has earned several honors, including the Linda Roemer Award for Excellence in Community Service from Simmons College, a Young Investigator Award from the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies for her work with Elaine Meyer, R.N., Ph.D. on parental design preferences in the pediatric intensive care unit and the 2000 David S. Weiner Award for Outstanding Leadership in Child Health from Children's Hospital Boston. Ms. Comeau is a member of the Upsilon Phi Delta Honor Society for healthcare management. She is also a member of both the Steering Committee and Medical Home Workgroup of the Massachusetts Consortium for Children with Special Health Care Needs.
Prior to joining the Catalyst Center in the summer of 2005, Ms. Comeau was a member of the Children's Hospital Boston Center for Families staff for seven years, where she was the coordinator of the Family Initiatives program. In that role, Ms. Comeau was responsible for facilitating family input into hospital policy and programming design. Her major projects focused on issues related to pediatric palliative care and bereavement support, health care quality and improving parent/professional communication. She was the parent co-chair of the Family Advisory Committee, chair of the Family Faculty program and a member of the Ethics Advisory Committee.
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Anne R. Hansen, MD, MPH is the Medical Director of the NICU at Children's Hospital Boston and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She conducts clinical research in the fields of neonatal neurology, infectious disease, and pulmonology. She is also committed to medical education - she has written two manuals addressing neonatal intensive care and she teaches physiology and physical exam skills to Harvard Medical students. She was instrumental in creating the expansion of the PERCS program to the NICU setting. Dr. Hansen serves as PERCS core faculty for the NICU offering and she has made many contributions to the development of the NICU case scenario and program.
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Elaine C. Meyer, PhD, RN is Director of the PERCS Program, offering multidisciplinary workshops on difficult conversations at end-of-life, employing high-fidelity simulation with professional actors. Dr. Meyer also serves as the Director of the Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice. She is trained as a masters-prepared child and adolescent psychiatric nurse and pediatric psychologist. She is an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School.
For more than 10 years, she has served as Staff Psychologist on the Medical Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Children's Hospital Boston where she chairs the Psychosocial Committee. Dr. Meyer provides clinical service to patients and their families, provides staff education, and leads weekly staff Bereavement Circles following patients deaths. She is a member of the Children and Adolescents Task Force on End-of Life Issues of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Meyer's research has focused on parental perspectives of hospitalization and pediatric end-of-life care, and hospital-based psychosocial interventions aimed at addressing needs as identified by parents.
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Brigid O'Connor serves as the Performing Arts Consultant for the PERCS program. She is President of O'Connor Consulting and is a casting agent with a rich diverse theatrical background. She is a founding member and co-artistic/producing director of the award-winning Threshold Theatre in Boston, MA. Ms. O'Connor has extensive experience as a stage and commercial actor and theatre administrator. She began her career as a performer at the age of 13 with Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo, NY. Since that time, she has worked as a theatre professional in London, New York and Chicago where she was a company member of Trinity Square Ensemble. Ms. O'Connor has also been an educator and quality management consultant in the health care field for over 15 years. She is a graduate of Boston College and the Eugene O'Neill National Theatre Institute.
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Robert C. Pascucci, MD is a Senior Associate in Critical Care Medicine and an Assistant Professor in Anesthesia (Pediatrics) at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Pascucci received his medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. and was a resident in Pediatrics at New England Medical Center as well as a resident in Anesthesia at the Hospital of the University in Pennsylvania. Following the conclusion of his residency, Dr. Pascucci went on to complete fellowships in Pediatric Anesthesia and Intensive Care at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He is board certified in Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, and Pediatric Critical Care. His primary clinical and teaching responsibilities are within the intensive care units at Children's Hospital, the Boston Floating Hospital, and Boston Medical Center, and in the operating rooms at Children's Hospital and at the Lexington clinic. Dr. Pascucci is responsible for regular monthly teaching conferences in airway management and in mortality review. Additionally, he is a principal instructor in the Children's Hospital PALS Program. His current research focuses on the Program to Enhance Relational and Communication Skills (PERCS).
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Elizabeth A. Rider, MSW, MD is Director of Programs for Communication Skills at the John D. Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Co-Director of the Communication Skills Teaching Program and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Rider also serves as the Director of Academic Programs for the Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice. Dr. Rider completed her medical degree at Harvard Medical School, pediatric residency at Children's Hospital Boston, and fellowship in general academic pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital. She also holds a Master's degree in clinical social work from Smith College.
A former child and family therapist, she is board certified in both pediatrics and clinical social work (LICSW, BCD), and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She is on the active staff at Children's, and practices pediatrics at Roslindale Pediatric Associates. At Harvard Medical School, Dr. Rider is responsible for developing educational programs and assessment in communication skills, and for teaching medical students, residents and faculty. She serves as Faculty for the Patient-Doctor III course and the Harvard Macy Program for Educators in the Health Professions. Dr. Rider is Reflective Practice Editor for the international journal, Patient Education and Counseling, and Associate Editor and Pediatric Perspective Editor for Medical Encounter. She is an active member of various national committees and advisory boards.
Dr. Rider was elected to the National Academy of Practice in Medicine as a Distinguished Scholar, one of 100 physicians in this Academy. She has won various teaching awards and is a Scholar of the Academy at Harvard Medical School. Her research and publications have focused on communication skills competencies in medical education, reflective practice, team-based learning, advancing medical education, patient satisfaction, and narrative. Dr. Rider teaches and consults locally and nationally on interpersonal and communication skills, reflective practice, patient-doctor relationships, humanism, and medical education program and curriculum development.
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I. David Todres, MD is a pediatrician and anesthesiologist and has practiced at Massachusetts General Hospital since 1971. His earlier training was in Cape Town, South Africa and Oxford and London. His primary clinical commitment is in pediatric critical care, with a deep interest in the psychosocial aspects of critical illness as they affect patients and families. He is chief of the Pediatric Bioethics Unit. He is the first recipient of the Distinguished Career award in Pediatric Critical Care from the American Academy of Pediatricians. He is also a recipient of the Christer Grenvik Memorial award for Ethics in Critical Care Medicine from The Society of Critical Care Medicine. In 2001 he was the recipient of the Schwartz Fellowship for Clinical Pastoral Education at Massachusetts General Hospital. His strong interest in complementing clinical training with a humanitarian approach led him to initiate a monthly literature event at his home to stimulate the role of narrative in doctors' practices. He holds an academic appointment at Harvard Medical School as Professor of Pediatrics and Anesthesia.
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Robert D. Truog, MD is Professor of Medical Ethics, Anaesthesiology and Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a Senior Associate in Critical Care Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston.
Dr. Truog received his medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and is board certified in the practices of pediatrics, anesthesiology, and pediatric critical care medicine. He also holds a Master's Degree in Philosophy from Brown University and an honorary Master's of Arts from Harvard University.
Dr. Truog's major administrative roles include Director of Clinical Ethics in the Division of Medical Ethics and the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Executive Director of the Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice at Children's Hospital, and Chair of the Harvard Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee (ESCRO).
Dr. Truog has published more than 200 articles in bioethics and related disciplines, including recent national guidelines for providing end-of-life care in the Intensive Care Unit. He is Principle Investigator on an R0-1 grant from the NIH to improve end-of-life care in pediatric intensive care units. In his role as Director of the Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice, he conducts research and develops educational initiatives related to communication and relational skills. He lectures widely nationally and internationally. His writings on the subject of brain death have been translated into several languages, and in 1997 he provided expert testimony on this subject to the German Parliament. Dr. Truog is an active member of numerous committees and advisory boards, and has received several awards over the years, including The Christopher Grenvik Memorial Award from the Society of Critical Care Medicine for his contributions and leadership in the area of ethics.
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Pamela Varrin, PhD is one of the parent faculty members of the PERCS program. She is the Coordinator of Family Support Services at the Cotting School in Lexington, MA, a private special education day school for students with complex physical, medical, communication, and cognitive challenges to learning. In this role, she coordinates a variety of activities and programs to nurture a welcoming and understanding community where families can share their experiences and knowledge, where others value and learn from those experiences, and where this shared knowledge can translate into the perspective and skills necessary to support students with complicated needs throughout the full range of development.
Dr. Varrin received her degree in clinical psychology from Boston University. Her clinical work before joining the staff at Cotting focused on the adaptation of individuals and families to the experience of chronic illness and disability. Her experience as the parent of a child with a disability has enlightened and enriched this work.
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Erin Ward, MsEd, CAS is one of our parent facilitators and a program consultant to the PERCS-NICU program. Erin has her Masters in Education and a Certificate of Advanced Study in counseling. The journey of raising and caring for her son with complex healthcare needs has led Erin to new opportunities to use both her personal experiences and her professional skills to work towards helping to improve parent-professional relationships and the quality of healthcare for children with special healthcare needs.
Currently, Erin works for the Center for Families at Children's Hospital Boston where she coordinates the Family Initiatives program, is the parent co-chair of the Family Advisory Committee, and is the coordinator for the Family Faculty program. You can read more about Erin and her relationship with Children's Hospital in the September 2006 issue of Children's News. Over the last year, through a grant from the Massachusetts Consortium for Children with Special Healthcare Needs, Erin worked in partnership with the with the Coordinated Care Services (CCS) Department at Children's Hospital Boston. Erin facilitated the development of a departmental Parent Advisory Board for CCS and is continuing to promote and expand parent and professional partnerships as the CCS Family Liaison. Erin is also a founding member of TrachCare, Inc., a non-profit organization providing support and information to parents, caregivers, and healthcare providers of children who have, or previously had, a tracheostomy.
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