Local North Caldwell residents and community leaders attend the 2nd Annual BBN Foundation's Moment of Truth Gala on Tuesday October 28th at the Wilshire Grand Hotel.

It was a packed event at the BBN Foundation’s 2nd annual Moment of Truth Gala on October 28th at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in West Orange that attracted hospital administrators and staff from Atlantic Health Care System such as Morristown Medical Center and Goryeb Children’s Hospital.

President Dr. Anthony Orsini (North Caldwell resident) and co-founder Dr. Maryann LoFrumento developed the Breaking Bad News (BBN) Model to train residents in the art of compassionate communication. The model involves role playing with professional actors and being critiqued by a team of trained doctors and patients that have experienced being on the receiving end of bad news. This program has allowed stronger doctor patient relationships and provide crucial continued education to residents that they do not receive in medical school.

Karen M. Knops, M.D. was awarded the BBN Foundation Award for Compassionate Communications because of her dedicated work to the Palliative Care Program at Morristown Medical Center in which she founded and serves as the Medical Director as well as her commitment to BBN Foundation and training physicians to communicate compassionately.

Author and EFT Practitioner, Cathleen Campbell Stone, was the Guest Speaker providing a heartfelt inspirational speech regarding her own experiences receiving the news that she would be paralyzed the rest of her life. She spoke of the doctor who gave her the first diagnosis who didn’t even look her in the eye and then of the doctor who gave her permission to live her life. She did just that. Cathleen didn’t just walk again but is now perfecting her skiing. Her speech showed an example of how compassionate communication can make the difference in a patients outcome and how important programs like the ones conducted by the BBN Foundation are essential for doctors.

Readers can still donate to these programs by logging onto bbnfoundation.org.

Pictured left to right): Dr. Anthony Orsini-President of the BBN Foundation, and Dr. Maryann LoFrumento-Co-Founder of the BBN Foundation

Photo Credits: Teresa Pyskaty-Lamicella