Since January of this year, Certified Listener Poet alum Anne Marie Wells (Cohort 9) has been putting her Listener Poet skills to good use in collaboration with a project called "Conceptualizing 'The Patient Voice' in Adolescents and Young Adults (AYA) with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD)" with researchers at the Palliative Care And Resilience Lab out of the Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center.
Anne Marie, along side Dr. Lucas, Dr. Snaman, and their patient partner co-designer, worked together to unite expressive arts and science to help young people with Sickle Cell Disease feel heard and valued in their medical care and interactions. Anne Marie read anonymized transcriptions of interviews the medical team held with AYA SCD patients and created origin stories and accompanying poems reflecting the interviewees experiences. The response from the patients has been overwhelmingly positive. Anne Marie will have more to share after the project's completion.