Palliative care.
The words can conjure up uncomfortable thoughts. Advanced disease, terminal illness and dying all come to mind. One expert, though, wants physicians and other health professionals to think again.
Charles F. von Gunten, M.D., Ph.D., recently challenged City of Hope faculty and staff to reconsider the perception of palliative care and see it as a discipline that can make a difference in countless lives. Von Gunten spoke at City of Hope as part of the Sheri & Les Biller Patient and Family Resource Center’s “Science of Caring” series, a regular symposium that raises issues about the issues facing patients with serious illness — and how to address them.
The Rhoda G. and Bernard G. Sarnat Symposium for Supportive Care supported the December event, where von Gunten received the Rhoda G. & Bernard G. Sarnat Distinguished Humanitarian Award in recognition of outstanding scientific and humanitarian achievement in hospice and palliative care.
“Palliative care is interdisciplinary care to relieve suffering and improve quality of life,” said von Gunten, medical director of the Center for Palliative Studies at San Diego Hospice. “It can be combined with therapies aimed at reducing or curing illness, or it may be the total focus of care.”
The discipline addresses issues such as managing pain symptoms and helping patients juggle the challenges of daily living during serious illness.
The demand for excellence in palliative care services means growth. The subspecialty of palliative care was formally recognized in the United States in 2006, and physicians from 10 sponsoring specialties (including internal medicine and surgery) are eligible. “Fellowship programs in palliative care have increased in the last several years,” von Gunten said.
Von Gunten urged physicians and healthcare providers to learn more about palliative care. The Education in Palliative and End-oflife Care (EPEC) Project, for one, offers health professionals high-quality training through a program sponsored by the American Medical Association, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
For information about EPEC, visit www.epec.net. To learn about upcoming Science of Caring Symposium dates, check daily campus calendar e-mails or www.cityofhope.org/cme.
