Welcome to the online home of

ACT @ URMC

We are excited to be offering the ACT Program to our friends and colleagues in the UR Medicine system, Accountable Health Partners, and affiliates!

Click here anytime if you would you like to sign up for an ACT Course!

What is the ACT Program?

ACT seeks to improve patient care by empowering clinicians to become ever-better communicators. Using evidence-based communication techniques, ACT provides tools and space to practice navigating serious illness conversations in a way that allows clinicians to partner with patients in making the best medical decisions possible.

How do we go about this?

We use a combination of the ACT Course & ACT Encore to introduce and practice using the MVP “Stool” model to organize and guide serious illness conversations.

You can also check out our ACT Resources page anytime!

Praise for ACT

“I had to deal with “bad news” in, for me, an unusual setting in the outpatient clinic. Yes, I’ve done this before, but felt sooo much better myself about doing it this time, after your course.

I saw a new patient with breast cancer. I can honestly say that your course helped ME feel more comfortable when I gave her the bad PET scan report, and then discussed how to approach her new breast ca (she just “wants it out” but treating the breast ca is not going to make her live longer [because of her other medical problems]…we discussed why it’s a bit complicated but how to make best choices and her anxiety about new lump in breast).

Thank you again. A few days later I can attest to how your course made a difference to how I feel about how I talk to people!”

– Carla Falkson, MD

“ACT training has tremendously helped me in patient care… My training came to great help just a few days after the course as I worked with an upset patient. My training helped me explain to the patient what was going on and our relationship with the patient has greatly improved. I continue to lean on this training whenever I see patients.”

– Jeffrey Alexis, MD

“I would like to share that I was lucky enough to use some of the tools TODAY!! I used respect, ask-tell-ask, warning shot, “I wish” statement. Oddly enough, my actual situation was similar to the case study from Friday. I want you to know that I felt prepared, confident and more aware and ready for “this kind” of conversation than I have been in my 15 years of nursing experience.”

– Whitney Serwetnyk, RN

We would also like to acknowledge our friends at VitalTalk who helped us get the ACT Program started and continue to provide us with wonderful support, especially in this challenging time!

@ACT_UR