School of Medicine

Meet Carol Stanford

I’m always trying to answer the question of how to make things better in my practice, especially for my patients but also for students, residents and other physicians. And I realized that finding those answers and documenting their benefits often can be done through a research project. I think my first project was art carts — carts stocked with art supplies, so that hospital patients would have something creative to do to pass the time. I got a Gold Foundation grant to finance the project and help us measure its effects on increasing patient satisfaction and decreasing their perception of their pain or other symptoms.

One study, under a Sarah Morrison Award, evaluates several acne products and cleansers on the market and compares them with homemade remedies and cleansers. Another involves intimate partner violence. We are working with women’s shelters to identify therapies and interventions that can help victims see their situations in a different light and give them the strength to make and sustain a change. Another project developed brochures, with photographs and brief bios, so that hospital patients could identify and have a chance to bond with the physicians, nurses and others taking care of them.

I try to learn a new skill every five years or so. I knit, and make rugs with a needle punch. And I’ve always wanted to paint —my mother’s an artist — and now I’m doing it, watercolors and oils. It’s so relaxing. And I read everything: history, historical novels, classics, Shakespeare.