The Aliki Initiative
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The Johns Hopkins Center for Innovative Medicine
Great things are happening at Johns Hopkins Bayview, thanks to the generosity of Mrs. Aliki Perroti. The Center for Innovative Medicine has launched The Aliki Initiative, a groundbreaking project that gives our internal medicine residents and medical students a priceless gift -- the opportunity to know their patients as people.
The idea of doctors spending a lot of time with their patients is almost unheard of today, and it’s safe to say that this is a reality that nobody likes. Recent changes in medical practice -- more patients being admitted to hospitals for ever-shorter stays, for example -- make it difficult for young doctors to get to know and care about their patients in the context of their families, communities, and culture. Sadly, but not surprisingly, a recent survey revealed that 58 percent of Americans believe their doctor does not know them as a person.
And yet, the importance of knowing a patient well has long been recognized by the best physicians as a cornerstone of good medicine. Sir William Osler, the first Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins, memorably captured this idea a century ago when he observed: “It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease than what sort of a disease a patient has.” In many ways, Osler’s path is the harder road for doctors. It requires attentiveness, compassion, curiosity, caring, and time -- but this journey also reaps considerable rewards for physicians as well as patients.
The Aliki Initiative is a bold, trail-blazing program that firmly restores Osler’s principle of “know thy patient” to the curriculum of training doctors at Johns Hopkins Bayview. “Aliki doctors” have opportunities that most physicians never experience: They visit their patients at home, get to know family members, and continue the doctor-patient relationship long after hospital discharge. Preconceived notions -- whether a patient is “compliant,” for example -- are challenged, and these physicians gain insights that no textbook could ever teach.
The revolution in medical education that started at Johns Hopkins in 1889 was made possible by the generosity of people who cared deeply about the way doctors are trained. Today, Mrs. Aliki Perroti’s profound interest in improving healthcare for all people is again allowing Johns Hopkins to reshape medical education.
The Center for Innovative Medicine was founded by Dr. David Hellmann and Mr. Richard Paisner in February 2004, at the suggestion of Johns Hopkins University President William R. Brody. The Center is founded on the belief that medicine is a public trust. We greatly appreciate Mrs. Perroti’s magnificent help in fulfilling this mission.
