The Center

The Center for Advancing Serious Illness Communication is based on a central premise: that a dedicated statewide community standard on how to address serious illness conversations (SIC), with a focus on training, implementation and workflow processes, will encourage consistent and higher usage of SIC by providers, and also help normalize the practice across all healthcare organizations to the benefit of patients, their families and clinicians.

The Center operates under the aegis of the Minnesota Hospital Association and the Minnesota Medical Association. This unique partnership brings a deep knowledge of and connections to the state healthcare community, broad reach, training expertise and infrastructure The Center can assist healthcare organizations across the state in meeting their Quadruple Aim objectives, and provide additional value including:

  • A centralized, multi-modal training program to accommodate providers’ unique needs

  • Consistent training across care teams along with broader, easier and more convenient accessibility

  • Training on closely-related topics, such as using EHR ACP modules, ACP documentation, workflow mapping, addressing cultural and equity issues, as well as refresher or repeat training, recognizing that the need for training is ongoing

  • CME and MOC credits for physicians and other providers

The Center is basing the core SIC training on the Ariadne Labs model, which has a strong, ongoing evidence base. Ariadne is a joint center for healthcare innovation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. It provides practical tools that are easily customizable for specific needs. They continue to evolve and expand based upon their ongoing research and input from their growing community of users.

“Patients deserve compassionate and reliable support from their clinical team in understanding their prognosis and in prospectively defining the care that they do and don’t want to receive. This program seeks to make those conversations the rule, rather than the exception.”

~ Janet Silversmith / Minnesota Medical Association CEO

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The Center for Advancing Serious Illness Communication is a joint project of the Minnesota Medical Association and the Minnesota Hospital Association.

Funding for this project is provided by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, as part of their long-term commitment to improving the health of Minnesota communities, and ensuring that all people have opportunities to live the healthiest lives possible.