COCC Visiting Scholar Program Hosts Dr. Ira Byock
The Central Oregon Community College Foundation’s Nancy R. Chandler Visiting Scholar Program is sponsoring Ira Byock, MD, director of Palliative Medicine at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and professor at the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College. Tickets are now on sale.
A nationally preeminent palliative care physician, Dr. Byock tackles one of the most important and controversial ethical issues of our time: how we die. His most recent book, The Best Care Possible, (2012) addresses the crisis that surrounds serious illness and dying in America and his quest to transform care through the end of life.
Dr. Byock describes what end-of-life care could look like if we remake our health care system and overcome our cultural aversion to talking about dying. He argues it is possible—and practical—to provide care that is consistent with medical standards, but that also reflects the values and preferences of individuals and their families.
Getting the Best Care Possible through the End of Life
• 6:30pm, November 21 – presentation and book signing
• The Tower Theatre in downtown Bend
• Tickets $25 general admission
• The challenge for advocates of the dying is to know what is possible and how to get it. Rich with stories and examples of programs that work, this presentation illustrates practical ways to get the best end-of-life care. Optimal care is not just excellent professional medical treatment, but highly individualized and loving care that embraces the values and preferences of the dying and their families.
What are Doctors for? The Physician-Patient Relationship through the End of Life
• Dr. Byock will lead Grand Rounds at St. Charles Medical Center 7-8am on Friday, November 22.
The Nature of Suffering and the Nature of Opportunity through the End of Life
• Workshop at Partners in Care
• 10am-noon on Friday, November 22
• Registration is through the Visiting Scholar Program website
• Cost is $25; AMAPRA Category 1 available
• The problem-based model of medicine does not address the profoundly personal experience of dying. During this workshop, Dr. Byok will present tools for understanding the nature of suffering and the opportunities associated with the end of life. He will use stories to illustrate a therapeutic approach to fostering development at the end of life that can empower clinicians to alleviate suffering and guide the dying to a satisfying sense of completion and closure.
Title sponsors of Dr. Byock’s visit are St. Charles Health System and Cambia Health Foundation; gold sponsors are Partners in Care – Hospice and Home Health and PacificSource; silver sponsors are Central Oregon Independent Practice Association, Sacred Art of Living Center for Spiritual Transformation, Niswonger-Reynolds Funeral Home and HomeCare IV; grant support from Oregon Humanities.
The event was organized by the Nancy R. Chandler Visiting Scholar Program of COCC Foundation.
www.cocc.edu/foundation/vsp, 541-317-0700. For information about the Nancy R. Chandler Visiting Scholar Program through the COCC Foundation, email Karen Aylward at kaylward@cocc.edu.
