A new 70-page Mentoring Handbook for Faculty helps established M. D. Anderson faculty members become more effective mentors and guide junior faculty in finding good advisors. Janis Apted, associate vice president in the Department of Faculty Development, led the team that created the handbook, which features mentoring plans for senior faculty, worksheets for mentors and their mentees, and a list of research and clinical faculty leaders who can be contacted for career advice. Faculty Development’s online site includes links to extensive educational materials and presentations made to more than 200 faculty who attended a Mentoring Day program in 2009.
Department of Faculty Development
Reaching beyond the institution
The importance of diet in reducing the risk of cancer was a popular theme for Public Education Office events in 2008-2009. More than 600 people attended campus presentations featuring celebrity Canyon Ranch chef Scott Uehlein, who gave a “Cooking Healthy” lecture and demonstration highlighting plant-based and low-fat foods, and brain cancer survivor-author David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D., who discussed adopting an anti-cancer diet, reducing stress and reaping the benefits of exercise and yoga. Other programs offered online, by telephone, on M. D. Anderson’s campus and in the community reached more than 1.1 million people with the latest information about cancer prevention and risk reduction.
Public Education Office, Division of Public Affairs
Finding the right words
Breaking bad news — that a patient has cancer or a recurrence, or that treatment has failed — is among the most challenging discussions in oncology.
M. D. Anderson’s new I*CARE (Interpersonal Communication and Relationship Enhancement) program teaches clinicians to be more effective and therapeutic during stressful encounters with patients and families. At the heart of the program is the belief that effective and compassionate communication is an essential skill that can be taught and learned. Videos demonstrating basic and advanced principles of communication available on the I*CARE Internet site (www.mdanderson.org/icare) or iTunes U qualify for free continuing education credits.
Walter Baile, M.D., professor, Department of Behavioral Science
Marching against metastasis
M. D. Anderson experts in cancer metastasis are developing a graduate program focusing on the most lethal aspects of cancer. Ten to 15 students from the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, which is operated by M. D. Anderson and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, will be accepted in the Graduate Program in Cancer Metastasis Research: Bench to Bedside. Twenty faculty from 13 M. D. Anderson departments are participating in the program that combines basic, translational and clinical aspects of metastasis research.
Gary Gallick, Ph.D., program organizer, professor and director of education, Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology
