"Over the River and Through the Woods: Taking the Medical High Road" is the title of this year's Bayer Lecture, which will be given on Thursday, Feb. 5, by Vaughn F. Keller, lecturer in medicine at the School of Medicine and associate director of education at the Bayer Pharmaceutical Institute in West Haven, Connecticut. The lecture, sponsored by the Program for Humanities in Medicine, will begin at 5 p.m. in the Beaumont Room of the Sterling Hall of Medicine, 333 Cedar St. It is free and open to the public.
In his talk, Keller will describe the self-searching undertaken by more than 100 physicians who have faced rejection by patients and didn't know why. The physicians ultimately examined their own values, personal histories, belief systems and skills in an effort to understand the reasons for the rejection.
At the Bayer Institute, Keller helps direct a program offering continuing education opportunities for health care professionals. Since 1992 he has conducted workshops and coached medical residents through the medical school's Primary Care Residency Program. He also developed a program to teach coaching skills to individuals responsible for improving the performances of clinicians.