David Cohn, MD, described one of his goals for patients of the James. “When a patient and a family say we didn’t want to be diagnosed with cancer and we didn’t want to be at the James Cancer Hospital, but after this experience there’s nowhere else we’d rather be and that is the end result of empathetic care and compassion in the delivery of that care,” said Cohn, the interim chief executive officer and the medical director of the James. In this episode, Cohn and John Schaffner, MBA, the director of coaching at Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business, described a new coaching program for James physicians that’s part of the Physician Wellness Program. This coaching focuses on compassion and helps physicians better understand their careers and goals and utilize compassion when working with their colleagues and patients. “It’s not that our physicians had problems, they’re exceptional, it was rather, how can we support our people so they can flourish,” Cohn said, adding this type of leadership initiative was welcomed by his team. Schaffner, who leads the James coaching program, explained his definition of empathy. “There’s cognitive empathy, that’s noticing someone else’s emotions; there’s empathetic concern, which is an emotional reaction to someone else; and this empathy plus action equals compassion.” There are currently 15 certified coaches who work with the 240 attending physicians of the James. “I love working with physicians,” Schattner said. “They’re smart and ambitious, understand the idea of flourishing and they do the work.” Some of these physicians, he added, are new to leadership positions and coaching can help them communicate better and build comradery. The coaching program is new and funded through a philanthropic donation to the James. Cohn said the program is designed to help each physician be the best version of themselves they can be with the overreaching goal of delivering the best-possible care to James patients. “Everything we do is driven by the delivery of care to our patients and this is another process to help us get there,” he said.