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Oxford Empathy Programme

Founded in 2015 by Dr Jeremy Howick and Sir Muir Gray

The Oxford Empathy Programme (OxEmCare) is an interdisciplinary research group that includes medical practitioners, philosophers, psychologists, and sociologists.

Empathy Shutterstock

Aim

For all healthcare interactions to include a dose of empathy. This often, but not always, requires additional time.We work to ensure that the evidence-based benefits of empathic care are implemented into the heart of all healthcare settings and interactions.

Empathic care has been shown to improve patient outcomes as well as practitioner well-being. Trials show that empathic care can reduce: patient pain, depression, anxiety, practitioner burnout, and patient complaints / medico-legal risk.  It can also improve: patient satisfaction, well-being, and improve medication adherence. Yet the extent to which practitioners express empathy is variable.

Key areas of work

  1. Conducting and disseminating research on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of empathic health care and the factors that support its delivery.
  2. Influencing healthcare policy and practice to support empathic care.
  3. Developing and providing training and development related to empathy for healthcare practitioners, healthcare managers and trainees.

Values

  1. Using best available evidence to inform decisions.
  2. Collaborating across boundaries.
  3. Promoting integrity and quality.
  4. Supporting next generation of empathy leaders.

Our team

Priorities

Upcoming events

27 April 2018. One Day Workshop at Stanford Medicine X: 'Mine your placebo potential, unleash empathy, and meet the power of Doctor You'.


28 April 2018. 'Why every healthcare consultation needs a dose of empathy' Stanford Medicine X.
17 May 2018 'Placebos, empathy, and expectations: how these change your patients minds and bodies' Psychologists in the Pub, London UK.
21 May 2018 'Introducing the Hard Science of Self Healing' Balens Continuing Professional Development Conference, Birmingham, UK (http://www.balens.co.uk/cpd.aspx)

Previous events

1 March 2018. 'Why every healthcare consultation needs a dose of empathy' Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, Oxford (https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/f25cef80-09c6-4800-bbdc-213776098691/)

13 March 2018 'The Ethics of Placebo Treatments' Health Psychology Seminars, King's College London (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/depts/psychology/research/ResearchGroupings/healthpsych/seminars/Seminars.aspx)

28 March 2018 The Oxford Empathy Programme co-sponsored a 1-day empathy training course. See here for more details.

26 January 2018. “Why every healthcare consultation needs a dose of empathy”. Grand rounds talk. University of British Columbia, Canada (http://www.msl.ubc.ca/events/spph-grand-rounds-dr-eva-oberle)

Official Launch of the Oxford Empathy Programme
25 October 2016. Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford.

2016 Inaugural National Empathy Colloquium
25/26 October Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford.
The aim of this event is to start a discussion about how promoting a culture of empathy might improve patient, practitioner, and staff health and well being. We will publish a report of what happened at the event in November 2016.

International Colloquium 24 October 2017 

  • This colloquium had over 50 attendees, including Sir Muir Gray and Professor Jeffrey Aronson
  • What kind of empathy is beneficial to patients and practitioners? 
  • Through group discussions, plenary sessions and poster presentations, we will explore this and other contemporary issues in empathy, with a view to collating our findings and publishing a report on our colloquium. 

International Empathy Colloquium

·         This colloquium had over 50 attendees, including Sir Muir Gray, Professor Jeffrey Aronson, and

·         What kind of empathy is beneficial to patients and practitioners?

·         Through group discussions, plenary sessions and poster presentations, we will explore this and other contemporary issues in empathy, with a view to collating our findings and publishing a report on our colloquium.

Related research themes

Health behaviours
Health behaviours