During his 10-month battle with cancer in the mid-1990s, Schwartz wrote an account for the Boston Globe Magazine - an article that's still circulated among clinicians - detailing his fight for survival and the significance of seemingly small acts of compassion along the way. Several days before his death, Schwartz amended his will to launch the center that today bears his name.

The idea behind the rounds, developed by the staff at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center, was to create a safe place for hospital staffers to express the frustrations, fears, and sadness that can reverberate during the drive home. Virtually no subject is off-limits - coping with angry patients, treating sick colleagues, the role of spirituality, and delivering bad news, among others, are all valid. Underlying many conversations is one common thread, a psychological tightrope that clinicians frequently walk: how best to provide compassionate care and really connect with patients without becoming vulnerable to a personal burnout.

"Unfortunately, it had been looked at in the past as a vulnerability and a weakness to show emotion when caring for patients," explains Jon Du Bois, MD, a physician leader for Schwartz Center Rounds at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Massachusetts. "I think it's finally time to say that the human side of caregivers can be as important as their medical judgment and their medical knowledge. I think the real art as a caregiver is to blend both."

SMALL ACTS
Kenneth Schwartz's lung cancer diagnosis was a shock; he was a nonsmoker. Once he became ill, he never returned to work at his high-powered law firm, focusing his energy­ on treatment and time with family and friends instead.