About
The Innovation Grant, a Program of the Chancellor’s Fund, awards support each spring for a handful of innovative programs which enhance the educational experience of Duke resident physicians and fellows.
Much of current medical training concentrates on enabling doctors to use their vast scientific knowledge to serve a patient, in the context of the clinic, hospital or emergency room setting, as quickly and effectively as possible. There is minimal time for the doctor to look beyond the presenting problem to the wider context of the patient’s life, family, community and/or other health needs best met by other sub-specialties or health care service providers.
For this Innovation Grant, the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS), in partnership with Duke Residency Program Directors Dr. Dennis Clements, Dr. Ross McKinney, Dr. Suzanne Woods, Dr. Betty Staples, Dr. Katja Elbert, Dr. Mitchell Heflin, Dr. Sarah Rivelli, Dr. Gary Cox, and Dr. John Moses, is offering resident physicians and fellows three resources:
First, we will host a series of six lectures by well-know photographers, writers, filmmakers or audio documentarians who will share and discuss projects which help reveal in a unique way a patient or patient’s family’s world, as well as, in some cases, the perspectives of the physicians and others caring for them.
Second, the program will provide six resident physicians and/or fellows the opportunity, through a documentary fellowship, to work closely with an established documentarian from CDS to produce their own documentary project.
Finally, this website will be developed to showcase some of the best documentary works available, which reveal the more complex stories behind medical situations. These works can be used as teaching tools, as patient and caregiver resources or in other ways which enrich and deepen our understanding of eachother and ourselves.