branch

Building Relational science FOR advanced Networks in Communication AND hEALTH

BRANCH is our most ambitious project to date. The need is clear. While technical advances in medicine, including molecular technologies and the use of AI, unfold at a staggering pace, so do reports of dehumanizing encounters with physicians and hospital systems leading to misdiagnosis, misunderstandings, unnecessary testing and the erosion of trust. These are not opinions or complaints. They are facts supported by data compiled in the relatively new field of Relational Science and Human Communication.

BRANCH seeks to reverse this trend by integrating this newer form of science with the science and art of Medicine through an international consortium. Such a consortium will foster interdisciplinary cooperation between thought leaders in both fields-- scholars and advocates from around the world--to gather information, publish, teach, train, advocate and implement disruptive innovations.

BRANCH was proposed by Dr. Ashley Duggan, a Fulbright Scholar and professor in the field of Relational Science and family physicians and professors Wayne Altman and Bernard Ewigman. Please read about them below. Their professional achievements and standing inspires confidence that BRANCH is not only achievable but will surpass all our expectations. They are committing the rest of their careers to this mission, and I’m proud that the Law Stroud Foundation is and will always be a Founding Cornerstone supporter.

I celebrate our Board of Directors for adopting this forward thinking, ambitious initiative that came with a budget of nearly $200,000 over three years when we have $60,000 in the bank.

Ashley Duggan, PhD, is a tenured Professor at Boston College, teaching Science and Communication in Health. She’s also a Fulbright Fellow with the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI) University of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Center for Positive Health Sciences in Dublin, Ireland. Her interests include scholarship on relationships in illness that informed the book Health and Illness in Close Relationships, as well as many published research studies. She holds major leadership roles in two international organizations devoted to Relationship Science and communication in health. She has collaborated with Wayne Altman, MD and Allen Shaughnessy, PharmD in the Department of Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine for the past two decades.

Bernard Ewigman, MD, MSPH is an adjunct professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, devoting much of his current work to BRANCH. During his rural upbringing, his family doctor (Dr. Smith) was both mayor and physician who provided care for him and his extended family. His example led Bernard to recognize the value of relationships and compassionate care in medicine. Bernard has been teaching Family Medicine for 40 years, as a tenured professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia and at the University of Chicago. For 17 years, his medical practice provided care for uninsured patients in their homes, at a clinic or a hospital (including labor and delivery) and nursing homes. He has served as the founder and/or leader of many programs, departments, centers, institutes, and clinical practices locally, regionally, nationally and internationally, each devoted to improving the care of patients through practice, education and research.

Dr. Wayne Altman is Professor and Chair of Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and has received 35 teaching awards and citations during his 25 years there. Recognized as a Boston Top Doc 13 times, Dr. Altman practices at Family Practice Group (FPG) in Arlington where he is President and co-owner of the practice. He is the founder of MAPCAP (MA Primary Care Alliance for Patients) which advocates for anti-racist health policy that features an emphasis on Social Determinants of Health, health equity, a prospective global payment for primary care, and the doubling of primary care investment. Dr. Altman is a Massachusetts Academy of Family Physicians Board member and serves as their Legislative Committee Chair. He received the 2023 Advocacy Award by the Massachusetts Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. Altman is also Chair of the Advocacy Committee for the Association of Departments of Family Medicine (ADFM).