Tufts Medical School Balint Initiative
Tufts Medical School has received support for an education pilot project that will engage one quarter of fourth-year medical students in the Balint Group experience, to be expanded to the entire class the following year. The hope is to reverse an unfortunate trend of decreased empathy resulting from medical education.
Created by Michael and Enid Balint in the 1950s, in London, Balint Groups encourage physicians to process trauma, complications, and complexities with peers, with whom trust is an oath. Such processing is baked into most, if not all, helping professions, and it is not considered a weakness but a necessity, not only for patients to be served but for physicians and their families.
“Tufts University School of Medicine is honored to receive a gift from the Law Stroud Foundation. The foundation and the medical school share the goal of ensuring that future physicians deliver care to patients with skill and high levels of empathy. The Law Stroud Foundation’s gift supports a Balint Group initiative that utilizes evidence-based techniques to give future physicians the opportunity to reflect on their most challenging patient experiences with trained facilitators in a group setting. This experience will help plant the seeds for students to deliver compassionate, relationship-centered care throughout their careers. We understand through Steven Law that his late husband, Tufts alumnus, Dr. Donald Stroud, was an exemplary physician who valued compassion in the practice of medicine. We look forward to continuing his legacy with each student that benefits from this new Balint Group program at Tufts.”
— Wayne Altman, MD, Professor and Chair of Family Medicine, Tufts Medical School