Healing Healthcare Together
Our Virtual Compassion in Action Healthcare Conference brings together more than 350 healthcare professionals, leaders and others committed to compassionate healthcare. The conference hosts an exchange of diverse thoughts and ideas around the critical importance of compassion in healthcare, particularly during these challenging times.
We’re looking forward to our 2023 Conference, which will be held December 7-8, 2023.
We hope you will join us and like-minded colleagues in what is sure to be another enriching and inspiring experience!
Thank You for Submitting Your Abstract for the 2023 Conference
We recognize the broad range of innovative and critical work being carried out by healthcare professionals to advance compassion in healthcare. Thank you for submitting your work for presentation at the 2023 Conference. Our review committee will be in touch in early June. If you have any questions, please contact Melissa Restivo at mrestivo@theschwartzcenter.org.
THEMES
The past few years have brought new urgency to supporting the well-being of the healthcare workforce so that they can provide compassionate care to patients and families. We know that health workers are facing ongoing challenges, from staffing shortages to workplace violence to burnout and more.
Built on the Healing Healthcare Initiative Framework, the Conference will equip health leaders and workers with the resources and tools to ensure that their organization, colleagues, and patients can thrive.
Conference sessions will explore how compassionate care can support goals like workforce well-being, patient experience, safety, quality and innovation through communication, interprofessional teamwork and interpersonal skills. Participants will learn to apply those techniques to initiatives and strategies that achieve the quadruple aim of improving patient experience, population health and workforce well-being, while lowering costs.
Conference Themes
- Diversity and equity
- Inclusion, voice and choice
- Mental health and well-being
- Psychological and physical safety
- Team cohesiveness and collaboration
- Trust and trustworthiness
WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE
This conference provides continuing education and community, focused on organizational culture change using strategies based on empathy, communication, interpersonal skills and interprofessional collaboration as well as networking opportunities for health workers across all medical specialties.
This conference is ideal for:
- Organizational leaders, directors and managers of healthcare professionals
- Practicing healthcare professionals and ethicists
- Patient and clinician experience officers and teams
- Quality and safety professionals and risk managers
- Health professional educators
- Human resources and employee assistance program professionals
- Spiritual care providers and chaplains
- Professional society leadership representatives
- Policy and public health representatives
More details to come.
THE EXPERIENCE
At Compassion in Action, participants roll up their sleeves, dig in and engage with visionary thinkers and doers to experience and learn how healthcare organizations around the world are improving quality, lowering costs and strengthening patients’ and providers’ experience using compassionate, collaborative care. Our vision is to form a powerful community where every Compassion in Action participant plays an integral role in sharing ideas, simulating new thinking and provoking the change that will better our healthcare system.
Through interactive experiential sessions with experts from diverse care settings and communities, this innovative conference focuses on fostering compassionate leaders across all professions and roles within healthcare. Participants will leave the conference having gained inspiration, knowledge/skills and partners to improve care quality and outcomes, patient experience and workforce well-being through compassion and collaboration.
Planning Committee
Elisa Arespacochaga, MBA | Vice President, American Hospital Association |
Tracey DasGupta, RN, MSN | Director of Interprof Education, Sunnybrook Medical Center |
Rushika Fernadopulle, MD, MPP | Chief Innovation Officer, One Medical |
Paula Goodman-Crews, MSW, LCSW | Southern California Regional Bioethics Program Co-Director, Kaiser Permanente |
Rev. Krista Gregory, MDiv, BCC | Director of The Center for Resiliency at Dell Children’s, Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas |
Helen Irving MBBS, FRACP, M Bioethics | Pre-Eminent Specialist, Oncology Services Group, Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service |
Jenna Mandel-Ricci | Senior Vice President, Health Care System Resilience, Legal, Regulatory, and Professional Affairs, Greater New York Hospital Association |
Jose Morales, MD | Pediatrician, Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa |
Angela Patterson, DNP, FNP-BC, NEA-BC, FAANP | Chief Nurse Practitioner Officer, CVS MinuteClinic Vice President, CVS Health |
Daniel Pomerantz, MD, MPH, FACP | Director of Palliative Care and Associate Program Director, Department of Medicine, Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital |
JamesPaul Qazilbash | Chaplain, Our Children's House |
Tina Runyan, PhD, ABPP | Co-Founder, Tend Health and Professor, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, UMASS Medical School |
Robert Salinas, MD | Palliative Care Physician, OUMC |
Heather Schmidt, DO | System Medical Director Healthy Work and Wellness |
Rick L. Shifley, PhD | Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences, School of Arts & Sciences, MCPHS University |
Julie Collier, PhD | Senior Director of Programs |
Michael Goldberg, MD | Scholar-in-Residence |
Elizabeth Hickman | Interim CEO and Chief Operating Officer |
Beth Lown, MD | Chief Medical Officer |
Leah Rybarczyk | Member Experience Advisor |
Kathy Scopin, BSN, PHN, RN | Membership Experience Advisor |
Schwartz Center National Business Members
Thank you to the Schwartz Center National Business Members for their year-round support of our mission and programs. Business members are not direct conference sponsors and have no influence on the content of the conference. Learn more about business membership.
Chairman Circle


Executive Circle


Leader Circle
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Bank of America Merrill Lynch
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Benchmark Senior Living
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MedPro Group
For more information on these and other sponsorship opportunities, please contact Melissa Restivo at mrestivo@theschwartzcenter.org
The Schwartz Center is dedicated to putting compassion at the heart of healthcare.
The Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare is a national organization whose mission is to put compassion at the heart of healthcare. Through programs, education and advocacy, the Schwartz Center supports the mental health and well-being of the healthcare workforce so they can provide compassionate care to patients and families. With more than 600 healthcare member organizations across 44 states in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the Schwartz Center’s evidence-informed programs and resources have proven to be versatile, sustainable and effective across diverse settings, including acute care and rehabilitation hospitals, outpatient clinics, cancer centers, Veteran’s Administration medical centers, organ procurement organizations, nursing homes, hospice providers, and health insurers. To learn more, visit theschwartzcenter.org or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
For media inquires please contact: Christina Parks (cparks@theschwartzcenter.org )
For sponsorship information please contact: Melissa Restivo (mrestivo@theschwartzcenter.org)
For exhibitor information please contact: Melissa Restivo (mrestivo@theschwartzcenter.org )