Compassion and Empathy as a Strategic Intent

Complimentary – Compassion and empathy, often treated as optional “soft skills” in healthcare, are recast as essential strategic capabilities that shape how care is designed, delivered, and led. Drawing from neuroscience, psychology, organizational science, and lived experience, we will discuss how empathy is a perceptual skill and compassion is empathy in action; both are measurable, trainable, and operationally consequential. We will describe practical tools for embedding compassion into healthcare systems, including structured empathy training, narrative learning, deep-listening workshops, compassionate leadership development, experience-based co-design, and the integration of empathy metrics into quality frameworks.

By building systems around relational connection, healthcare can evolve toward environments where human experience is honored, and healing is more complete. Join this webinar to explore this strategic reframing of compassion, not as a sentimental ideal, but as a foundation for sustainable, high-performing, and profoundly human healthcare.

Speakers:
-Elizabeth Garcia, MPA, BSN, RN, NEA-BC, CPXP | Vice President, Patient Experience, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
-Carol Lewis, MD, MPH, CPXP, FACS | Chief Patient Experience Officer, ad interim; Professor, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Learning Objectives
-Discuss the science and evidence behind the benefits of empathy and compassion on an individual level.
-Describe practical tools to integrate empathy and compassion into a healthcare system’s foundation.
-Explain the systems-level/strategic benefits of empathy and compassion.

*Headliner webinars are complimentary