About
Founders
Celia Engel Bandman
Bernard Bandman, PhD
Patricia A. Barr, JD
Our History
The Center for Communication in Medicine (CCM) is the education division of the Institute of Medical Humanism, a Bennington, VT based nonprofit organization. Since 2001 CCM’s educational programs and tools have helped patients, loved ones and healthcare providers prepare for difficult conversations leading to improved communication about treatment options, quality of life considerations and supportive care needs.
Founders, psychologist Bernard Bandman, writer Celia Engel Bandman and patient/healthcare advocate Patricia Barr (1950-2002), recognized that medicine is a world with its own language where time was at a premium. It was evident that patients and providers need help to be effective communicators.
With this in mind, CCM designed and implemented its innovative medical humanist’ program at Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center (2002-2005) to help facilitate doctor-patient communication. The ‘medical humanist’ documented the patient’s perspective of illness by identifying what may have been misunderstood or unspoken during the office visit. Building on the success of this program, CCM developed SpeakSooner: A Patient’s Guide to Difficult Conversations (Guide) to help patients identify their questions and concerns in preparation for opening honest discussions with healthcare practitioners.
The Guide is the cornerstone of the SpeakSooner Initiative which prepares patients to open timely and frank con-versations with healthcare providers; help family, friends and caregivers identify needed supports; and engage clinicians in inviting patients to ask questions and express concerns. SpeakSooner programs in medical practices and community have been changing the way people are com-municating about healthcare needs and supports. The Guide is available online here.
CCM is working with patients and clinicians to integrate the SpeakSooner program into medical practices worldwide.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Michael J. Welther, MD
President, Arlington, VT
Scott J. Burg, MA
Bennington, VT
Leslie Burg, Ed. D.
Manchester, VT
Kevin P. Dailey, JD
Arlington, VT
Michael A. Keane
North Bennington, VT
Laura Moore
Lakeville, CT
Allison Niemi, MD
Bennington, VT
Sara Ames, AOCNP
Saranac Lake, NY
Bernard M. Bandman, PhD
Ex Officio
Patricia A. Barr, JD
In Memoriam 1950-2003
Gary David Goldberg
In Memoriam 1945-2013
ADVISORY BOARD
Susan Bauer-Wu, RN, PhD
University of Virginia (retired), Charlottesville VA
Stephen Berns, MD
University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
Elaine Meyer, PhD, RN, MBE
Harvard Center for Bioethics, Boston, MA
Joann Oseary
Los Angeles, CA
Lidia Schapira, MD
Stanford Medicine, Palo Alto, CA
David Schroedel
Sleepy Hollow, NY
Jason Touhey, DO
Berkshire Health, Pittsfield, MA
Bruce Nash, MD, MBA
President, Catamount Advisors, Shaftsbury, VT
Col. James Baker (ret.)
JW Leadership Consulting, Arlington, VT
Executive Director
Bernard M. Bandman, PhD
BERNARD BANDMAN, PhD
In 1988 Dr. Bandman established the psychological services program at Southwestern Vermont Cancer Center in Bennington, VT. He is a founder and the Executive Director of the Center for Communication in Medicine. Dr. Bandman has been featured on Vermont Public Radio, NPR and appears in Dana Farber Cancer Institute’s Living Beyond Cancer video library. He co-produced SpeakSooner: A Patient’s Guide to Difficult Conversations and has presented at conferences nationwide. Dr. Bandman is a recipient of the Vermont Psychological Association’s Distinguished Psychologist Award.
MISSION AND VISION
MISSION
The Mission of The Center for Communication in Medicine’s SpeakSooner initiative is to prepare patients facing serious illness and their caregivers for honest and timely conversations with healthcare providers in order to increase satisfaction with care, improve efficiency in medical practice, and reduce healthcare costs.
VISION
The Center for Communication in Medicine is an internationally recognized leader in the development and dissemination of SpeakSooner tools and programs. We envision expanding the SpeakSooner Initiative into medical practices worldwide; improving patient outcomes, facilitating organizational efficiency, reducing healthcare costs and growing our public education programs for the benefit of patients, families and healthcare providers.
Read our Paradigm Changing Booklet
“The Center for Communication in Medicine’s SpeakSooner initiative is challenging all our assumptions about what can be accomplished”
Lidia Schapira, MD, Director of Cancer Survivorship, Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Professor of Medicine (oncology), Stanford University School of Medicine
“The Center for Communication in Medicine’s SpeakSooner initiative is challenging all our assumptions about what can be accomplished”
Lidia Schapira, MD, Director of Cancer Survivorship, Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Professor of Medicine (oncology), Stanford University School of Medicine
“The Center for Communication in Medicine’s SpeakSooner initiative is challenging all our assumptions about what can be accomplished”
Lidia Schapira, MD, Director of Cancer Survivorship, Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Professor of Medicine (oncology), Stanford University School of Medicine
IN THE NEWS & PRESENTATIONS
Stanford Medicine
Lecture
Getting Patients, Families and Healthcare Providers on the Same Page, in partnership with Stanford Palliative Care
Adirondack Health at Saranac Lake
Lecture (Medical Grand Rounds)
Improving Healthcare Communication: The SpeakSooner Model in Medical Practice
UVM College of Medicine
Lecture (Family Medicine Grand Rounds)
Difficult Conversations in Primary Care
Southwestern Vermont Medical Center
Lecture (Clinical Communications Rounds)
Difficult Conversations: Challenges for Patients, Families and Healthcare Team
Brattleboro Memorial Hospital
Lecture (Primary Care Grand Rounds)
Getting Patients, Families & Healthcare Providers on the Same Page
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Seminar
A New Framework for Treatable but Incurable Diagnoses
Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Lecture
12th Annual Prostate Cancer Symposium: Men Do Talk
Vermont Public Radio
On-Air Report
Interview highlighting CCM’s Doctors Conversation Hour
Brown University Medical School
Seminar
Humanism in Medical Education
WNYT Channel 13
Interview
Anchor Benita Zahn, CCM co-founder Dr. Bernard Bandman and patient Kiki Smith talk about challenges of doctor-patient communication.
SPEAKSOONER’S IMPACT
“The Guide is giving me the opportunity to ask myself questions that I assumed I had thought about adequately… wonderfully helpful in coming to terms with one’s prognosis.”
SUSAN H., Patient
“The Guide is giving me the opportunity to ask myself questions that I assumed I had thought about adequately… wonderfully helpful in coming to terms with one’s prognosis.”
SUSAN H., Patient
“The Guide is giving me the opportunity to ask myself questions that I assumed I had thought about adequately… wonderfully helpful in coming to terms with one’s prognosis.”
SUSAN H., Patient
SPEAKSOONER’S IMPACT ON PATIENTS AND FAMILIES
“I would say the most difficult challenge (in my care) has been bridging the gap in (healthcare) communication. The SpeakSooner program has helped me to bridge that gap.”
LAURA M., Patient
“You’ve done a brilliant job in the way the material is organized and presented. It really does walk someone through the process and identifies a host of issues, questions to ask, and information that is needed by both patient and family.”
WILLIAM G, Husband of Patient
“Communication goes beyond the doctor—it’s with family, friends, employees, employers—each have roles to play—and those roles are important.”
BRIAN G., Patient
““[The Guide] was very helpful to me in really reflecting on how I want to deal with all this…I don’t want to just be a spectator in fighting this cancer. It also was helpful to recognize that living with the uncertainty of my future is scary.”
ALICE K., Patient
SPEAKSOONER’S IMPACT ON HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS
“[The Guide] gets me where I need to be to help the patient. It takes a lot of time to feel that out. With the Guide, I already know the answer before I walk in.”
DAVID MASTRIANNI, MD, Oncology & Hematology, Adirondack Health, Saranac Lake, NY
“…patients and families make difficult and heartfelt decisions, and [your materials] open the door to communication on this level, rather than a pure cognitive and logical one. Your intervention is clearly not duplicative of what else is out there, but rather complementary— and certainly essential.”
SUSAN BAUER-WU PHD, RN, TUSSI AND JOHN KLUGE ENDOWED PROFESSOR IN CONTEMPLATIVE END OF LIFE CARE IN NURSING, University of Virginia School of Nursing
“The Guide has given us a foundation to have meaningful conversations more effectively and efficiently. This isn’t something that’s adding a whole new thing in your day where you’re already overloaded and pulled in 10 different directions. The Guide has made it so that everybody can have effective and meaningful conversations. It definitely works. We have found that it has not only benefited the patients, but it’s benefited the staff.”
SARA AMES, MSN, AOCNP, Adirondack Health, Saranac Lake, NY
“Your [SpeakSooner] program has been there for many years when there was nothing out there. You built it and we use it from coast to coast.”
MATTHEW LOSCALZO, LCSW, PROFESSOR EMERITUS, SUPPORTIVE CARE MEDICINE CITY OF HOPE, LOS ANGELES, CA
[SpeakSooner] addresses a key need in our community…I expect it to be a useful tool at every phase, from diagnosis to treatment to end of life.”
MARY CHAMBERLIN, MD, Dartmouth Cancer Center, Associate Professor, Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine
[SpeakSooner] addresses a key need in our community…I expect it to be a useful tool at every phase, from diagnosis to treatment to end of life.”
MARY CHAMBERLIN, MD, Dartmouth Cancer Center, Associate Professor, Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine
[SpeakSooner] addresses a key need in our community…I expect it to be a useful tool at every phase, from diagnosis to treatment to end of life.”
MARY CHAMBERLIN, MD, Dartmouth Cancer Center, Associate Professor, Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine
LATEST PRESS RELEASE
SpeakSooner Fall Webinar
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a major influence in our culture – including in our medical system. What do we need to know to make informed decisions about care? And, how do we maintain the human side of medicine while using this powerful tool?
The Center for Communication in Medicine (CCM) has assembled a panel of experts who will explore the benefits and concerns in using AI in medical practice. We will hear from those directly affected – both clinicians and patients.
Doctor-Patient Communication: Where Does Artificial Intelligence Fit In? – CCM’s Fall Community Education Webinar will be presented on Wednesday, October 21 at 6pm. Video interviews from our 2023 webinar exploring this topic will be replayed to launch the conversation of how the use of AI has changed and how we can make use of this advanced technology without compromising professional ethics and standards.
Our 2026 panelists include: Benjamin A. Gartrell, MD, Director, Genitourinary Malignancy Program at Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx. NY and an Assistant Professor of Oncology and Urology at our Albert Einstein College of Medicine; David Schroedel, cancer patient; Jason Touhey, DO, internal medicine specialist and Chief Informatics Officer at Berkshire Medical Pittsfield, MA; Adara Bochanis, a 4th year medical student at the at UMass Chan Medical School; and Angela Mastrianni, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Section of Digitally Enabled Care within the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Together they will discuss the fast-paced changes in our use of AI in medical practice, how this affects patients and families, and how to maintain ethical values and humane treatment of patients facing serious illness.
Audience Q&A will be available via the chat. The webinar is free and open to the public.