First Annual Thomson Lecture- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
First Annual Thomson Lecture- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
Skip to contents
June 9, 2000
Browse the archive
Current issue
In This Issue:
New MS Center
First Annual Thomson Lecture
It pays to take the T
Thomson Compassionate Care Scholars
Pike Notes
Neuroscience Conference
ASK YOURSELF:
Martin Leber, MD, Retires from SJPHC
Dennis Thomson’s legacy of compassion, thoughtfulness, and respect was celebrated on Wednesday, May 31, with the First Annual Dennis Thomson Compassionate Care Lecture. Featuring keynote speaker Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Harvard Graduate School of Education professor and award-winning author, the lecture celebrated the hospital’s commitment to the principles of compassionate care. The ceremony also honored the sixteen Dennis Thomson Compassionate Care Scholars who exemplify these values. “Dennis Thomson knew that good clinical medicine is just as much about listening as it is about acting and about seeing the person as it is about treating the pathology,” said Lawrence-Lightfoot. “The 16 Dennis Thomson scholars who we’ll be honoring tonight have demonstrated through their energetic, vigilant daily clinical practice these themes of respect and grace that Thomson personified in his leadership at BWH. We admire their mission, their courage, and their determination to give humanistic care—particularly at a time when the politics, structures, and deliveries of medical care often conspire against the values and standards they hold so dear.” Lawrence-Lightfoot, who has authored numerous articles and written six books—including Balm in Gilead: Journey of a Healer, which won the 1988 Christopher Award, and Respect: An Exploration—discussed the research she had done in schools across the country to determine what creates respect between students and teachers. She noted that her findings were also applicable to the relationships between healers and their patients. “I focus on the way respect creates symmetry, empathy, and connection in all kind of relationships, even those such as parent and child, teacher and student, doctor and patient, commonly seen as unequal,” explained Lawrence-Lightfoot. “Rather than looking for respect as a given in certain relationships, I’m interested in watching it develop over time. I believe that respect generates respect.” She concluded by telling the story of her friend Bill Wallace—an Episcopal priest, pastoral psychotherapist, and AIDS activist—and how he comforted the family of a 19-year-old boy named Richard, who was dying of lukemia. “Threaded through this story, we see the daily acts of compassion, the warm glow of undiluted attention, and the relentless and gentle curiosity that says ‘Yes’ to the haunting question—‘Will anybody know who I am?’”