The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has established a first-of-its-kind center focusing on patient-centered care. The Leo H. Criep, MD, Center for Patient Experience will be a home for scholarship and innovation, supporting its mission to improve health care outcomes by strengthening the patient experience.
To that end, the center will focus on three areas, each of which will be led by an endowed chair:
- Supporting innovative scholarship and setting international standards for understanding the doctor-patient relationship through research programs, grants, awards and international symposia.
- Developing new methodologies to accelerate the training of future physicians by leveraging technology advancements to improve the patient experience.
- Creating an artificial intelligence (AI) division to develop AI and other clinician-assistive technologies.
The center is named in memory of Leo H. Criep, a nationally recognized pioneer in immunology and distinguished professor in Pitt’s School of Medicine. Criep, who died in 1992, maintained a keen interest in the nature of the physician-patient relationship through his writing, mentoring and commitment of personal resources.
The center's establishment represents a continuing commitment to patient care, supported by Criep’s family, which originally established an endowed chair in 1998 to enhance the patient experience.
Susan Santa-Cruz, Criep’s daughter, acknowledges that the patient experience has become more complex and varied since then. She believes, however, that doctor-patient interactions continue to shape that experience. She applauds Pitt’s vision and commitment to what will be the important work of this center.
Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine, noted that the mission of the center is consistent with Pitt Health Sciences’ commitment to ensuring equal access to health care and the best possible outcomes for all patients.
“The quality of physicians’ relationships with their patients is essential to health and wellbeing. That quality is dependent on trust, concern and engagement as much as it depends on solutions to specific health problems,” Shekhar said.
A national search will be conducted for the center director. The director, who will hold one of the three endowed chairs, will be a clinician with research experience and a commitment to the center’s mission.
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