Duke School of Medicine Joins National Effort to Foster Respectful Discourse in Medicine

The Kern National Network for Flourishing in Medicine (KNN) recently announced a cohort of nine U.S. medical schools that will participate in a national demonstration project aimed at identifying innovative, effective methods and resources for bridging across differences and overcoming polarization in academic medicine: 

  • Duke University School of Medicine 
  • Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth 
  • Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at University of Buffalo–SUNY 
  • Paul L. Foster School of Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center–El Paso 
  • Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania 
  • Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago 
  • University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health 
  • Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine 
  • Wake Forest University School of Medicine 

Building on the work of Robert D. Putnam, PhD, the KNN approaches bridging as a facilitative process that advances flourishing by providing a model for engaging across groups and individuals with different views on topics, including those impacting the health ecosystem and patient care. 

The KNN recognizes that effectively addressing issues of divisiveness and polarization will require a commitment to advance solutions and support a culture and environment in which faculty, staff and learners can flourish. Selected schools expressed a deep commitment to bridging differences in clinical learning environments, and the cohort also reflects a broad range of geographic settings, institution types and learner populations. 

Professors of psychiatry and behavioral sciences Jane Gagliardi, MD, MHS, and Melanie Bonner, PhD, along with Aditee Narayan, MD, and Joseph Jackson, MD, both faculty members in the Department of Pediatrics, will lead the effort at Duke.

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