About Empathy

Dr. Maxxine Rattner is a hospice/palliative care clinician and educator who recently completed her PhD on the topic of non-physical suffering. In this episode, we discuss the challenges in addressing non-physical suffering and the importance of making space within palliative care to do this intrinsically difficult work and approach the work without the expectation of “fixing” suffering. 

Dr. Zhimeng Jia is a palliative care physician at the Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative Care in Toronto.  Through a combination of personal and clinical experiences, Dr. Jia developed an interest in health inequities that Asian immigrants experience at the end-of-life. In this episode, he shares the lessons he has learned in providing culturally aware care to patients and their families.

Dr. David Lysecki is the Founder and Medical Director of the Quality of Life & Advanced Care Program at McMaster Children's Hospital. In this episode, Dr. Lysecki discusses his experience working in pediatric palliative care, and how he navigates both the rewards and challenges of working in this area. We also discuss how we can ensure that palliative care and pediatric palliative care become the work of all health care providers.

Shortly after Mishi Methven and her partner Aimee’s daughter Stella turned two, they were given the devastating news that Stella only had months to live.  In this episode, Mishi shares how they navigated Stella’s diagnosis of a fatal brain tumour - Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma - guided by the philosophy of finding joy in the everyday.

Julie Vizza was born with a multifaceted genetic condition, beta thalassemia-major. She joins the podcast today to discuss her journey in the healthcare system and how these experiences have inspired her work as a patient advocate; providing a voice for those with complex health care needs with an aim to improve the system for all.

In this episode, Billy Bridges shares his inspiring ideas for addressing Ableism with empathy and offers a rallying cry for disability advocacy. Billy Bridges is an extraordinary Canadian athlete who has represented his country in six Paralympic Games, winning gold (2006), bronze (2014, 2018), and silver (2022) medals. He's also a four-time World Champion, including two Championship MVP awards, and was the youngest recruit to the Canadian sledge hockey team at 14 years old. But that's not all - Billy is also an accomplished athlete in wheelchair basketball and tennis, a motivational speaker, mentor, and ambassador for para sports. Born in PEI, he spent most of his youth in Ontario due to his medical needs for Spina Bifida.

At the young age of 18, Serena Tejpar was injured in a car collision as a backseat passenger that left her in critical condition with almost no chance of survival.  Despite the many challenges that came with her injuries, she was determined to get better and return to her daily activities. This trauma reaffirmed Serena’s interest in medicine as a career. She is currently attending medical school at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine in Toronto. In this episode, Serena reflects on how her experience with serious injury and recovery drives her to live a life of purpose and of service to others and ensure that patients are provided compassionate care that will lead to positive health outcomes and experiences.

In 2022, Brian Smith’s life was profoundly changed by a diagnosis of metastatic cancer. In this episode, Brian shares his experiences of living with cancer, the supports he relied on to get him through a challenging series of treatments and how his cancer seemingly expanded his life’s horizons.

In this 2 part episode, we chat about the importance of compassionate and dignity conserving care. He provides the learners with many pearls on how to bring this important and essential style of care to the bedside through our discussion of the dignity question, the platinum rule and his other work and research in this area.The Platinum RuleSeeing Ellen and the Platinum RuleStrategies and approaches to dignity conserving care in practiceThe ABCDs of Dignity in CareIntensive Caring: Reminding Patients They MatterDepression is a Liar

In this 2 part episode, we chat about the importance of compassionate and dignity conserving care. He provides the learners with many pearls on how to bring this important and essential style of care to the bedside through our discussion of the dignity question, the platinum rule and his other work and research in this area.The Platinum RuleSeeing Ellen and the Platinum RuleStrategies and approaches to dignity conserving care in practiceThe ABCDs of Dignity in CareIntensive Caring: Reminding Patients They MatterDepression is a Liar