Background: Radiation oncology residents spend their days reviewing images of people living with and sometimes dying from cancer. Images can be a reminder of the transient nature of life. Our humanities-based curriculum was written to specifically honor the fragility of life in the work of our radiation oncology residents. A needs assessment was done with our chief radiation oncology resident and our curriculum developed based on the Japanese Tea tradition, Echigo Echie 一期に一度, honoring the meeting of people as a unique and unreproducible experience, a once in a lifetime occurrence. Each encounter is unprecedented. Due to the uniqueness of the meeting, we must dedicate ourselves to this one moment in time that we have.

Methods: Photo-Elicitation was used to facilitate conversations on transience, death anxiety, and counter transference. Firstly, a training radiographic image of metastatic cancer was used to reflect through conversation on transience as a theme. Secondly, a prize-winning photo of a cancer patient and family was used to foster conversation on death anxiety. Lastly, residents used images from their cell phones to share an image of particular meaning and reflect on the concept of counter transference.

Objectives:
1. Explain the relationship of transience and meaning in life.
2. Contemplate the concept of death anxiety.
3. Understand the experience of counter transference.


Results: Photo-Elicitation was used to facilitate conversations on transience, death anxiety, and counter transference was well received by residents and the experience will be shared with the audience.

Cory Ingram, M.D., M.S., FAAHPM, is a Hospice and Palliative Care Consultant at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Ingram holds academic appointments in Palliative Medicine, Spiritual Care, and Family Medicine and serves as Co-Director of Communication in Healthcare in the Program for Professionalism and Values. Dr. Ingram is the first physician and non-chaplain to receive an academic appointment in Spiritual Care at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Ingram’s career is a trans-Atlantic pilgrimage in the examination of the Art of Medicine recently recognized with the 2025 Humanities Award from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Dr. Ingram is an advocate for cultural transformation of caring for people through the end of life with attention to the whole person needs of patients and their caregivers.

COI Disclosure: I do not have an affiliation (financial or otherwise) with any for-profit or not-for-profit organizations