Measuring Compassion
Epidemiology, the study of the incidence and distribution of diseases and other factors relating to health, holds untapped potential for the study and cultivation of compassion in global health.
Understanding the epidemiology of compassion may help to guide efforts to “scale up” its impact throughout society, particularly within the caring professions.
The Challenge
Despite a deep-rooted belief that compassion is central to quality care, we have little quantitative information about how to cultivate compassion, for example in health facilities, or evaluate our progress. Consequently, current knowledge is insufficient for organizations such as WHO to make evidence-based recommendations for compassionate health systems, or for motivating organizations to prioritize compassion.
Our Approach
Through generous funding and excellent partnerships, we are conducting projects that contribute to a growing body of compassion research needed to implement compassionate programs and evaluate progress.
The Epidemiology of Compassion and Love
In January 2020, FACE convened a groundbreaking meeting on the epidemiology of compassion and love. With support from the Fetzer Institute and in collaboration with the WHO Global Learning Laboratory for Quality UHC, we convened 70 participants–representing a wide range of disciplines–to explore how epidemiology can contribute to our understanding of compassion and love.
We discussed how epidemiologic inquiry is needed to develop and validate metrics that can be used to guide and scale up programs dedicated to cultivating compassion at the individual, organization, and community levels.
The insights gleaned from this meeting – as well as the relationships built with collaborating partners – served as a springboard into many new exciting projects related to measuring compassion.
In 2022 we produced a literature review of quantitative compassion data. We then held a second convening in September 2024 to lay a foundational and actionable framework for the growth of this new field.
Read the reports for all initiatives to date below. Further publications are coming soon!
Additional Resources
Meeting Report
"Epidemiology of Love & Compassion" meeting
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Executive Summary
"Epidemiology of Love & Compassion" executive summary
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Publication Summary
Summary of "Epidemiology of Compassion"
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Compassion Researcher Handbook
Coming soon!
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Workshop Report
Towards an Epidemiology of Compassion Workshop Report
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Executive Summary
Towards an Epidemiology of Compassion Executive Summary
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Our Partners
Coming Soon
Compassion Researcher Handbook
This comprehensive researchers handbook includes measures and definitions of compassion for epidemiological research. It focuses on instruments most applicable to program metrics and includes details such as a description of each measure, how to access it, how it’s been used, what has been learned from using it, its validity, its scale, and in what settings it might be recommended for further research. This resource will serve as the foundational tool for the growing field of compassion research.