Customer Story - MASS GENERAL BRIGHAM PART 2
Mass General Brigham Partners With Will to Address Racism and Other Biases in Healthcare Professions
Mass General Brigham partnered with WILL Interactive to create Facing Change: United Against Racism, an immersive training experience addressing discrimination in healthcare. Informed by extensive staff input, the course fosters empathy, encourages difficult conversations, and supports equitable patient care and workplace respect.
Solution
Conducted 42 focus groups across seven hospitals
Delivered accredited course promoting equity and empathy
Company Size
80,000 Employees
16 institutions
Industry
Healthcare
Impact
Transformed awareness and empathy, helping staff deliver more equitable, respectful care
Project Overview
Mass General Brigham, one of the world’s leading healthcare institutions and the largest employer in Massachusetts, partnered with WILL Interactive to confront racism and mistreatment in healthcare through transformative training. Building on a prior collaboration, the organizations developed Facing Change: United Against Racism, an immersive, empathy-building experience designed to address discrimination, foster equity, and improve patient and workforce outcomes. Informed by 42 focus groups and interviews across seven hospitals, the project aimed to drive cultural change at scale and reaffirm the organization’s mission of delivering superior, equitable care to all.
Key Highlights
- Facilitated 42 focus groups and interviews across seven hospitals to gather real-world insights.
- Developed the course script and storylines centered on empathy, inclusion, and systemic challenges.
- Produced, filmed, and programmed the immersive interactive courseware.
- Delivered a CME-accredited training experience that reflects the lived realities of healthcare staff and patients.
The Need
Mass General Brigham is not only one of the most pre-eminent medical institutions in the world, but also the largest employer in Massachusetts with ~80,000 employees and dedicated to communities it serves.
A critical aspect of its mission is to “dedicate ourselves to the delivery of superior care that is patient and family-centered, accessible, and equitable.”
With an increasing understanding of healthcare disparities and evolving study of differentiated care, Mass General Brigham committed to address racism and other mistreatment in healthcare in Massachusetts and across the nation.
The Answer
After collaborating with WILL to field a customized version of Common Ground Healthcare, Mass General Brigham decided to further the partnership to address discrimination and other barriers to successful patient outcomes and workforce satisfaction.
Just as focus groups were being assembled to begin the project, George Floyd was publicly murdered. Suddenly, the nation desired to confront systemic inequities. MGB and WILL stepped up.
Mass General Brigham hosted forty-two focus groups and interviews across seven hospitals, offered subject matter expertise, and administrative guidance. WILL Interactive conducted the focus groups, interviews, and other research and wrote, filmed, and programmed the courseware.
The nearly year-long development phase of the project resulted in Facing Change: United Against Racism; the title deriving from a James Baldwin quote, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
Addressing What Matters for Their Business
Changing Care Through Empathy
Striving for progress, not perfection, Facing Change’s script focused on building empathy and creating respectful workplaces for both staff and patients. In scenarios that focused on a range of hospital occupations and environments, learners were able to “step into someone else’s shoes” and see the world from a different perspective, practice having difficult conversations around hierarchical abuse, witness the effects of nepotism in hiring, and discover solutions for racial intolerance. The program aimed to reaffirm Mass General Brigham’s commitment to “seek ways to deliver the highest quality health care to all.”
A member of the workforce shared "It's AMAZING. I'm blown away, I just went through Dr. Carter's storyline and was losing it -- this is so so good! Just finished the full course - holy smokes, I'm blown away. 10/10 standing ovation. I took notes throughout at everything that made me literally scream. There were soooo many good moments in there, and the production value was insane. Those actors were amazing!"
In addition, the American Academy of Family Practitioners has reviewed Facing Change and deemed it acceptable for up to 1.00 Enduring Materials, Self-Study AAFP Elective credits.
The Results
The resulting course is considered revolutionary in addressing healthcare inequities. In informal surveys, employees who took the course reported admiration for the compassionate voice, the genuine reflection of real world experiences, and the incredibly talented performers. Many felt challenged, but respected, throughout the learning process.
Overall, learners indicated the program would be a game changer for their teams and patient care.
