Program Details

Communication Skills Training Program in Oncology

CME

The goals of the Communication Skills Research and Training Laboratory (Comskil Lab) are twofold:

• To provide communication skills training
• To develop research initiatives to further the field of communication skills training

Housed in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and opened in 2005, the Comskil Lab trains attending physicians from a wide array of disciplines, including medical, surgical, and radiation oncology; pain and palliative care; critical care; radiology; and pediatrics, as well as fellows and nursing staff.

While our curriculum has been developed for cancer care, it is readily adapted to hospice and those treating AIDS and other chronic and life-threatening diseases. We teach in a state-of-the-art laboratory.

15 CME

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
COMSKIL Laboratory
641 Lexington Avenue, 7th floor
New York, NY 10022

Marriott Courtyard New York/Manhattan East
866 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022
212-644-1300

The Fitzpatrick Manhattan Hotel
687 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10022
800-367-7701

The Kimberly Hotel
145 East 50th Street
New York, NY 10022
212-702-1600

646-888-0001

comskil@mskcc.org

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Curriculum

The Comskil curriculum currently consists of eight core modules:

• Breaking bad news
• Shared decision making about treatment options, including clinical trials
• Responding to patient anger: A challenging clinical encounter discussing prognosis
• Discussing the transition from curative to palliative care
• Shared decision making about DNR orders
• Communicating with patients via interpreters
• Conducting a family meeting

Training takes places over two days in our facilities in midtown Manhattan.

Additional Training

A Facilitating Communication Skills module for facilitation trainees to run their own courses is available on request.