Effective communication is crucial in healthcare. In this episode, Dr. Teresa Trogdon Anderson MD, MA, FAAP joins us to explore the challenges of conveying complex medical information to parents while offering strategies for fostering empathetic and transparent conversations.

Teresa Trogdon Anderson is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the WVU School of Medicine and Emerita Professor of Pediatrics at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. She practiced general pediatrics in New Mexico (Indian Health Service 1993-97, Lovelace Health Systems 1997-2002, the University of New Mexico 2002-2021) and cared for many patients with complex medical issues. Her position as a faculty member at UNM spanned patient care, education, scholarly activities and hospital administration. In her roles at UNM as medical director for the pediatric primary care faculty practice, pediatric resident continuity clinic and pediatric urgent care she was integral to the implementation of NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home for pediatrics. She served as Chief of the Division of General and Community Pediatrics for several years.

Her teaching passions center on the human dimensions of medicine, particularly patient-centered/relationship-centered interviewing and care. As faculty at UNM, she directed foundational courses in doctoring for first year medical students, taught ethics and professionalism, taught clinical reasoning and clinical skills, precepted pediatric clerkship tutorials and presented educational topics for pediatric and family medicine residents.

Dr. Anderson is the recipient of numerous teaching awards. She was honored to be recognized with the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Leonard Tow 2012 Humanism in Medicine Award from UNM, “in recognition of exemplary compassion, competence and respect in the delivery of care.” In her final year at UNM, she received the Pediatric Faculty Phase II Clinical Teacher Award from UNM medical students.

After relocating to West Virginia, Dr. Anderson connected with the Department of Pediatrics as volunteer faculty. Her activities include Interprofessional Education (IPE) at the WVU Health Sciences Center, the teaching of communication and clinical skills to first- and second-year medical students via PDCI and coaching for pediatric residents. She is a faculty preceptor for Project DOCC (Family Experience/Delivery of Chronic Care) as well as for the core IPE curriculum.

View the transcript.

Music: Daylight by JayJen

Sponsored by the West Virginia Department of Human Services, Office of Maternal, Child, and Family Health/Children with Special Health Care Needs Program and the West Virginia Family 2 Family Health Information Center and Produced by the West Virginia University Center for Excellence in Disabilities.