About The Aware Medicine Curriculum

• Funded by one of four grants awarded each year by GWish, the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health, to primary care residency programs
• Grant amount $30,000 over 3 years, first paid in October 2006
• Covers University of Wisconsin Family Medicine resident classes of 2009-2011.
• Represents one of the first times a residency training program has formally included mindfulness training as part of its curriculum
• Is designed to facilitate healthcare providers self-exploration. Participants are encouraged to consider – and deepen – their own beliefs, their self-awareness, and their awareness of others.

Course Director

Adam Rindfleisch, MD

Adam was born in Arco, Idaho, in a remote area where spirituality was a much a part of life as 40-below temperatures, earthquakes, and a mountain landscape so vast that many places still remain unexplored. After the town lost its long-time general practitioner, many people turned to various forms of complementary medicine, including a number of Adam’s early mentors. When Adam was a sophomore at Albertson College of Idaho, his grandfather collapsed next to him during a football game. After some difficult end-of-life decision making, his grandfather died at the hospital shortly thereafter. This experience led Adam to add comparative religious studies to his undergraduate coursework, to add depth to his pre-med training. During his two years as a graduate student in England, Adam traveled to India, Nepal, and Thailand, which heightened his interest in Eastern religions and meditation. After medical school and residency, he resolved to help healers in training explore that ‘something more’ that allows for healing to occur at its most profound level. Spirituality remains an important aspect of his Integrative Health practice.