Physician Focus, April 2009: Hospice and Palliative Care
Some 90 million Americans now live with serious and life-threatening illnesses, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and the number is expected to double in the next 25 years as our population ages. The medical specialty dedicated to relieving the pain and suffering of patients with serious illness and providing them with the best quality of life possible is called hospice and palliative care, a specialty practiced for more than a decade yet officially recognized by the medical community only a few years ago. How well do we meet the needs of the seriously ill? What should patients know about this kind of care? Just how accessible is it? And what sets this kind of care apart from other medical care?
Guests: JoAnne T. Nowak, M.D., Medical Director, Partners Hospice
Lachlan Forrow, M.D., Director of Ethics and Palliative Care Programs, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Host: John Fromson, M.D., Associate Director, Postgraduate Medical Education, Massachusetts General Hospital
Co-produced with Hopkinton Community Access Television, HCAM-TV, Hopkinton Mass.
Listen to the podcast (Length 26:15) (This will open your computer’s default media player in a new window)
Filed under: Physician Focus
