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Narrative medicine is a patient-centered educational approach that promotes humanistic engagement of medical practitioners; it offers a unique framework for understanding medical encounters and promotes empathic connections through enhancement of observation, listening, and reflection. The andragogy of narrative medicine uniquely engages adult learners and may enhance academic learning. This article explores the evidence for narrative medicine and discusses its unique applications and potential within psychiatry. An adaptable narrative medicine curriculum is proposed for use in a 4-year psychiatric residency curriculum to allow for easy adoption of narrative medicine as an underutilized best educational practice.

Although the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) drastically altered the daily lives of much of the world--requiring masking, additional sanitation behaviors, and social isolation-patients who have undergone hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) were already experts in these precautionary behaviors. HSCT provides a potential cure for some hematologic malignancies. However, it entails a protracted hospitalization, substantial physical side effects, and a decline in psychological well-being and quality of life. The COVID-19 pandemic has tightened many of the already strict procedures put in place for HSCT patients in order to protect their vulnerable immune systems, which could lead to more distress. Alternatively, exposure to this public health crisis may unlock the lives of HSCT survivors for their communities and healthcare providers to further inspire HSCT care built on a stronger foundation of empathy.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have become increasingly recognized as essential to the practice of high-quality patient care delivery and the support of members of the clinical environment. A solid understanding of DEI contributes to a better grasp of what drives health care disparities and yields improved clinical outcomes for minority populations. This column discusses how individuals can practically promote DEI by describing the design and implementation of DEI in an academic psychiatry department. The authors highlight the powerful role of departmental initiatives in establishing best practices for DEI and lessons learned through the work of the psychiatry department's DEI committee.

Effective feedback is critical to medical education in that it promotes learning and ensures that benchmark learning objectives are achieved. Yet the nature of and response to feedback is variable. In this article, the authors provide a comprehensive review of the effective feedback literature. Namely, they discuss the various approaches to feedback, their advantages and disadvantages, as well as barriers to providing effective feedback. Finally, they offer suggestions for steps both the feedback giver and receiver can take to foster a culture of successful feedback in an academic and clinical setting.

BACKGROUND: Advances in diagnostic and therapeutics for cancer patients have resulted in improved survival rates. Yet, there is significant burden of psychosocial and physical health concerns among cancer survivors. Although digital health tools (DHT) are a promising alternative and effective strategy to deliver cancer care and support, their role in health promotion among cancer survivors remains relatively unexplored. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the acceptability and impact of DHT for health promotion in cancer survivors. METHODS: Data was pooled from cycle three of the 5th edition of the Health Information National Trends Survey. Chi-square tests were conducted to evaluate differences between cancer survivors and the general population regarding ownership, usage, and perceived usefulness of DHT for health management. Regression models were used to identify sociodemographic predictors of DHT usage among cancer survivors. RESULTS: Overall, cancer survivors were as likely as the general population to own and use DHT (e.g., health apps, wearable devices) for their care and they were likely to find these tools beneficial in tracking their health and communicating with healthcare providers. Cancer survivors who had health applications installed on their mobile device were more likely to meet national recommendations for diet (fruit and vegetable consumption) and strength training than those without health apps. Age, income, and education level were significant sociodemographic predictors of DHT ownership and usage. CONCLUSION: Our study shows cancer survivors own and use DHT at rates similar to the general population. Although cancer survivors from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to own DHT, DHT have the potential to reach many cancer survivors and positively impact clinically meaningful health outcomes for this growing patient population. With increasing use of DHT in health care, future studies that target digital access disparities and aim to explore factors associated with digital access in cancer survivors from low SES is essential.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically transformed the U.S. healthcare landscape. Within psychiatry, a sudden relaxing of insurance and regulatory barriers during the month of March 2020 enabled clinicians practicing in a wide range of settings to quickly adopt virtual care in order to provide critical ongoing mental health supports to both existing and new patients struggling with the pandemic's impact. In this article, we briefly review the extensive literature supporting the effectiveness of telepsychiatry relative to in-person mental health care, and describe how payment and regulatory challenges were the primary barriers preventing more widespread adoption of this treatment modality prior to COVID-19. We then review key changes that were implemented at the federal, state, professional, and insurance levels over a one-month period that helped usher in an unprecedented transformation in psychiatric care delivery, from mostly in-person to mostly virtual. Early quality improvement data regarding virtual visit volumes and clinical insights from our outpatient psychiatry department located within a large, urban, tertiary care academic medical center reflect both the opportunities and challenges of virtual care for patients and providers. Notable benefits have included robust clinical volumes despite social distancing mandates, reduced logistical barrieres to care for many patients, and decreased no-show rates. Finally, we provide clinical suggestions for optimizing telepsychiatry based on our experience, make a call for advocacy to continue the reduced insurance and regulatory restrictions affecting telepsychiatry even once this public health crisis has passed, and pose research questions that can help guide optimal utilization of telepsychiatry as mainstay or adjunct of outpatient psychiatric treatment now and in the future.