VitalTalk

The Organization: 

VitalTalk is a national leader in providing specialized communication trainings to thousands of clinicians and clinician-faculty across the country. We provide clinicians with best-practice communication methodologies and tools, a rich community of support and ongoing development to better serve the needs of seriously ill patients and their families. 

VitalTalk was founded in 2012 by three academic doctors with extensive NIH research funding and educational experience. Today we are the leading provider of evidence-based communication trainings to clinicians across the country, supported by nationally recognized funders and a robust earned income revenue stream. Our influence can be felt in academic and tertiary medical centers, integrated health systems, hospitals and community clinics through our post-graduate training for specialists who work with serious illness. 

Our Mission:

We know and believe that effective, empathic, and honest conversations between a clinician, patient and their family are the cornerstones of patient-centered care. Just as no doctor is born knowing how to handle a scalpel, the same is true for communicating effectively with patients. But, despite best efforts, too few clinicians are trained on or get to practice critical patient conversations. 99% of clinicians report understanding the importance of advance care planning, yet more than 60% of physicians say they never received formal training and only 14% actually had these conversations with their patients. 46% of physicians said they were uncertain of what to say in these situations. Inadequate clinician communication skills impact not only patients from intake to discharge but the entire health ecosystem; it’s the most expensive line item hospitals don’t see. 

Our two primary programs include:

• Clinician trainings that teach evidence-based methods to change clinician behavior and improve communication skills. 
• Train the Trainer programs that use best in class faculty programs to train clinicians on how to teach.

Our approach draws on a unique educational philosophy built on empirical research of proven strategies to combat communication pitfalls. In our courses actors give clinicians a realistic patient experience, a safe space to fail and the opportunity to hone effective, authentic strategies. Because behavior change doesn’t happen in two hours behind a screen, we use real scenarios to give clinicians the opportunity to practice with real-time feedback. 

Key Results:

• Over 10,000 clinicians trained in the past 2 years
• 550 clinician-faculty developed in the past 5 years
• 674 courses conducted in the past 3 years
• Acknowledged by the National Academy of Medicine as a premier provider of programs for teaching communication skills among seriously ill patients

The Opportunity for VitalTalk: 

We are experiencing an increase in demand for VitalTalk’s courses from hospitals, health care systems, and large government agencies. Since our founding in 2012, the organization has grown significantly to accommodate that demand and the number of courses offered has grown year over year since inception. VitalTalk is now transitioning from an early stage lean approach to our business to a more mature, higher-capacity organization with investment in staff and infrastructure that will support continued growth. Along with our growth, we are committed to retaining our entrepreneurial culture. With a staff of 7, a projected 2020 budget of $2.1 million and $900k in earned revenue, this agile, fast paced social enterprise is well poised for significant growth to reach over 200,000 medical providers who care for patients with serious illness.

Our big picture goal is to ensure that every seriously ill patient will be surrounded by clinicians who can skillfully discuss what matters most and match care to values. To achieve that goal, we seek to:

• Grow VitalTalk’s programs (courses, faculty, and revenue) to increase our impact
• Ensure that the right processes, systems, and people are in place to support our goal of training over 200,000 clinicians by 2030
• Continue to train, invest in and grow our faculty community
• Embed VitalTalk’s program in health systems across the US
• Foster strong relationships with key funders to ensure funding for continued innovation