Lynne Stevens Memorial Program

About Us

Lynne Stevens was the Director of the Responding to Violence Against Women Program, and an Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine. Lynne was a clinical social worker who was a tireless advocate as well as clinician and researcher in the field of improving health care’s response to women experiencing violence. She specialized in evaluation of the quality of care offered in medical settings to women impacted by partner and sexual violence  and died in 2009 at the age of 63. Working with such groups as the International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), she developed and implemented programs in many countries, including Nepal, Venezuela, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Armenia. Educational materials that she developed for program developers and staff have been widely distributed by UNFPA, the CDC, and state anti-violence programs, and been translated into a variety of languages.

On moving to Boston University in 2005, she championed the integration into medical settings of programs responsive to victims of violence. She led initiatives evaluating and strengthening services for victims of violence in a variety of settings, including the Family Medicine Department’s Ambulatory Care Clinic and other Department practices, Manet Community Health Center, and Boston University’s student health services, and dental clinics. Lynne maintained active and substantial community commitments, supporting programs offering free yoga for women with issues of poverty, homeless, domestic violence or  substance abuse histories. She also served as a member of the boards of directors of several domestic violence organizations in New York State and in Boston  where she became Vice-President of the Board of Casa Myrna Vasquez.

To keep Lynne’s voice and work alive for us, the Family Medicine Dept started a dedicated annual Grand Rounds, inviting a speaker to remind, instruct and inspire us to improve the care we provide to the women who were her life work.. Thanks to a generous donation in Lynne’s memory, our ambitions expanded to include providing the kind of lovely lunch that she always offered her friends and inviting some of the wider community of service providers and coalitions that Lynne participated in across the campus and city.

An additional exciting development was the establishment of a grant program for a research or practice improvement project. Funded in 2011 for to provide annual $5000 grants for 5 years or the life of the fund,  the focus is on evaluating, studying and improving care for women who experience partner and sexual violence receiving care in any of the hospitals, student health services and community health centers affiliated with Boston Medical Center or Boston University. This is a University-wide program, so that all faculty, staff, trainees and students of the University and affiliated services are eligible to apply if they receive endorsement by clinicians regarding clinical relevance.  Like Lynne, we want to make sure that what we do makes a difference.

The Program for Integrative Medicine and Health Care Disparities Will Begin an Exciting New Project in Spring 2012

Eligible patients will be able to participate in an innovative Integrative Medicine Group Visits program. Led by Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett, Director of Clinical Services for the program, group visits combine patient education, mindfulness practice, individual patient care, and various complementary therapies, all in a group setting. The group visits are intended for patients in the Family Medicine Clinic at BMC who suffer from common chronic conditions like back pain, hypertension, and diabetes. To learn more, call 617-414-6795.

Jon Wiecha Featured in BU Research Magazine: Virtual Worlds, Real Gains

It's clear from the start that this isn’t your standard professional development fare. There’s a replica of the Colosseum, for one thing, as well as a dance floor, an underwater classroom, and chickens wandering freely through the grounds. Welcome to the private, pixelated island where John Wiecha, director of the medical education office and assistant dean of academic affairs at the School of Medicine, is testing the efficacy of virtual world platforms for delivering information to health care professionals and patients alike. More

Dr. Joanne Wilkinson featured in BU Research Magazine: Show, Don’t Tell

It’s the kind of advice more often given in a creative writing class than the Annals of Family Medicine. But “Show, don’t tell” is one of the tips that Joanne Wilkinson, an assistant professor of family medicine and associate director of medical student education, offers to physicians who want to communicate better with patients with intellectual disabilities (formerly mental retardation). For example, a doctor might use a dummy to show a female patient how to conduct a breast self-exam, rather than simply talking her through the procedure, because patients with intellectual disabilities often grasp specific, concrete examples more easily than abstract explanations.
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Wilkinson Honored for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research

Joanne Wilkinson, MD, MSc, associate director of Medical Student Education at BUSM, has been selected as the first physician to receive the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities’ (AAIDD) 2011 Early Career Award for her continued efforts to improve the changing face of medicine for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). The AAIDD presented Wilkinson with the award during its Annual Meeting held June 6-9 in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn.
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The Program for Integrative Medicine and Health Care Disparities has Launched the Yoga for Low Back Pain 2 (YLBP2) Research Study

The Program for Integrative Medicine and Health Care Disparities has launched the Yoga for Low Back Pain 2 (YLBP2) research study. The aim of the study is to compare the effectiveness of two different doses of yoga (once vs. twice per week yoga classes, both for 12 weeks) for 96 adults with chronic low back pain. Recent studies suggest yoga may be effective for chronic low back pain, but the optimum class frequency has yet to be determined. Patients will receive 12 weeks of yoga classes at no cost. For more information, call 617-414-6211 or email YLBP2@bmc.org

A CME Modeule Featuring Carol Mostow and Colleagues is Now Available on the Society of General Internal Medicine Website

A CME module featuring Carol Mostow and colleagues is now available on the Society of General Internal Medicine website. The module is excerpted from an interactive workshop presenting the RESPECT model at a national AAMC conference and SGIM Forum on Health Disparities Education. The RESPECT Model: Precepting for Cross-racial/cultural Care is based on work that appears in the May 2010 JGIM Special Supplement and was excerpted from the 2009 interactive workshop presented at the conference. The module is also available to be viewed at no charge if the viewer registers.
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Dr. Joanne Wilkinson Receives Early Career Award

The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities has selected Dr. Joanne Wilkinson to be one of the recipients for the 2011 Early Career Award in recognition of her significant achievements and many contributions to the field of developmental disabilities.
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