Podcast Summary: The Science of Human Kindness in Healthcare with Dr. Alisahah Jackson

Becker’s Healthcare Podcast — October 3, 2025
Host: Laura Deardle (Becker's Healthcare)
Guest: Dr. Alisahah Jackson, President, Lloyd H. Dean Institute for Human Kindness and Health Justice at CommonSpirit Health

Episode Overview

This episode features a compelling discussion with Dr. Alisahah Jackson, who leads the Lloyd H. Dean Institute for Human Kindness and Health Justice at CommonSpirit Health. The conversation centers on the science and practical integration of kindness, empathy, compassion, and trust in healthcare. Dr. Jackson explores both the evidence supporting these concepts and their operationalization within a large health system. The insights span emotional, social, and measurable outcomes for patients, clinicians, and the broader healthcare community.

Dr. Alisahah Jackson’s Background and Motivation

[00:42–03:10]

• Dr. Jackson is a family medicine physician who has worked across urban and rural underserved communities.
• Inspired from an early age to pursue medicine, she values comprehensive care and population health.
• Her career progression: clinical practice → academic medicine → administration (including creating a community health department at Atrium/Advocate Health) → her current leadership at CommonSpirit.
• Her work has been shaped by exposure to health disparities as well as the strengths found in diverse communities.

The Science of Kindness, Compassion, and Empathy in Healthcare

[03:35–12:10]

Why the Institute?

• The Lloyd H. Dean Institute was created at the end of 2022 to honor Lloyd Dean’s legacy and address worsening health disparities, declining civility, and increased social isolation.
• Dr. Jackson notes society’s "lowest levels of civility ever in this country since it started being measured in the 1930s" ([04:07]).

Research Insights

• Acts of kindness and prosocial behavior benefit both the giver and the receiver.
• For patients with anxiety and depression, engaging in kindness leads to "improved social well being... increased connectedness... improved life satisfaction" ([05:26]).
• Within healthcare teams, high kindness levels correlate with better teammate satisfaction and both improved mental and physical health for workers.
• There are also system-level impacts: "We also see reduced costs and reduced errors, medical errors" ([06:48]).

Empathy and Outcomes

• Patient-perceived provider empathy leads to:
  • Better medication adherence
  • Lower anxiety (notably for cancer patients)
  • Faster recovery: "In patients who see their doctor who they think was very empathetic ... they have milder symptoms following that visit, and they have one day less of symptoms than someone who saw a provider who they did not think was empathetic" ([08:11]).

Compassion in Practice

• Compassion doesn’t require much extra time: "It takes 40 additional seconds during a patient visit to exhibit compassion... saying things like, 'I am here for you,' making sure we have eye contact..." ([10:48]).
• Heart-to-heart communication—matching body posture for connection—is emphasized as a practical tool.

Building Trust in Healthcare

[12:47–17:17]

Nature and Importance of Trust

• Trust is bi-directional: clinicians must also trust patients as the experts in their lived experience.
• Especially crucial in "communities that have been systematically excluded and where there is significant mistrust or distrust in the healthcare delivery system" ([13:51]).
• Trust is "built over time": repeated, consistent interactions establish it ([14:50]).

Trust and Outcomes

• Teams with high trust: "have higher quality of life, they're actually more productive, they have higher teammate engagement" ([15:21]).
• Patients who trust providers show better clinical outcomes in cancer and diabetes: improved symptom control, medication adherence, and lifestyle changes.

Provider Benefit

• "We also see improved things for the provider as well... we see a reduction in burnout, which is, you know, a critically important topic right now" ([16:34]).

• Quote: "There's all this data and science to say we should be delivering humankindness at every touch point and every single interaction that we have..." ([16:54]).

Systematizing Kindness & Empathy: Education, Training, and Tools

[18:08–22:07]

Organizational Strategy

• The Institute is focused on four pillars: education, training, research, and evaluation.
• Dr. Jackson describes the launch of the Common Good Academy, training teammates involved in quality improvement around health disparities. Projects are explicitly designed to embed research-backed principles of kindness, compassion, empathy, and trust.
• Quality improvement training uses "the plan, do, study, act framework for quality improvement that is centered around health justice" ([19:41]).
• Implementation of Common Good PDSA: all plans integrate the science of kindness.

Addressing Social Isolation

• In some communities, social isolation and loneliness were significant needs. The Institute responded with specialized curricula for care managers—how to screen and intervene.
• The training also adapted to support staff members themselves, especially remote workers experiencing isolation ([21:08]).
• Transitioned from in-person/virtual formats to accessible modules for broader reach.

Measuring Impact and Insights

[22:55–26:17]

Metrics and Assessments

• Every education program includes pre- and post- knowledge assessments, showing a "20–40% improvement in knowledge in this space" ([24:00]).
• Training: Focused on behavioral change; tracking integration via engagement and experience surveys—explicit additions of questions on kindness, compassion, empathy, and trust.
• Quality improvement projects tracked for impact—the Institute has seen elimination of disparities in some markets as a direct result ([25:40]).
• Plans are underway to publish these outcomes to "solidify this point that health justice starts with human kindness" ([26:07]).

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• "It takes 40 additional seconds during a patient visit to exhibit compassion." — Dr. Jackson ([10:48])
• "The patient sitting across from you, they are the expert in their own lived experience." — Dr. Jackson ([13:24])
• "Delivering humankindness at every touchpoint... that's not just a feel-good thing—it's a business imperative. We see reduced costs and reduced errors, medical errors." — Dr. Jackson ([06:48])
• "We are at the lowest levels of civility ever in this country since it started being measured in the 1930s." — Dr. Jackson ([04:07])
• "We have seen, in some of those markets so far, they have actually eliminated the disparity." — Dr. Jackson ([25:40])
• "Health justice starts with humankindness." — Dr. Jackson ([26:07])

Conclusion

Dr. Jackson's work at CommonSpirit Health’s Institute for Human Kindness and Health Justice demonstrates that kindness, empathy, and trust are not soft concepts, but powerful, evidence-based tools that improve health outcomes, clinician well-being, and system performance. The Institute's structured approach is not only changing conversations but delivering measurable improvement in health equity and patient care.