Two Physicians Recognized for Work in Pain and Symptom Management
To: NATIONAL EDITORS
Contact: Spencer Levine, Director of Communications of Capital Hospice, +1-703-531-6241, Mobile: +1-703-217-4358, Slevine@capitalhospice.org
FAIRFAX, Va.,Oct.24/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ –Kathleen M. Foley, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and Perry Fine, MD, of the University of Utah School of Medicine, received the Josefina Magno Excellence in Education and Leadership Award for 2007 at the 9th Annual Josefina Magno Conference on Palliative Care. The award recognizes contributors to the advancement of palliative care, the science of pain and symptom management. The award and professional conference are named for the physician credited with pioneering the modern concept of hospice and palliative care in the United States in the 1970s. It is sponsored by Capital Hospice, which was founded by Dr. Josefina Magno as Hospice of Northern Virginia in 1977. The two day conference, held in Fairfax, Va., concluded today.
In accepting the award, Foley paid tribute to Dr. Magno, who died in 2003. She was the most extraordinary person in her unconditional regard for all who she touched, Foley said. Interestingly, in Magnos autobiography, Hospice in America, Magno calls Dr. Foley her mentor. Foley is an attending neurologist in the Pain & Palliative Care Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and is a Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Clinical Pharmacology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Her contribution with perhaps the most lasting impact was as Director of the Project on Death and Dying in America, at the Open Society Institute. PDIAs mission was to understand and transform the culture and experience of dying and bereavement. Over the course of nine years beginning in 1994, PDIA created funding initiatives in professional and public education, the arts, research, clinical care, and public policy. PDIA and its grantees have helped build and shape this important and growing field, and have helped place improved care for the dying on the public agenda.
In accepting his award, Fine called Dr. Magno his inspiration since meeting her in the 1980s. Fine is a professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine, teaching courses in social medicine and medical ethics. He serves as faculty and attending physician at the universitys Pain Research Center. He is widely published in peer-reviewed journals and has written or contributed to more than 40 books on pain management and end-of-life care. He currently serves on multiple editorial boards including the Journal of Pain (Journal of the American Pain Society), the Journal of Palliative Medicine (Journal of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine) and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
The Josefina Magno Conference Series is the largest annual educational event of its kind on the East Coast, attracting health care professionals from across the county. The theme of the 2007 conference was, The Profound Nature of Pain: Strategies for Relief.
Capital Hospice, organizer of the Magno series, is a nonprofit organization that has provided expert end-of-life care to more than 50,000 patients and their families in the national capital region since 1977. Compassionate and specially-trained staff provide pain and symptom management as well as emotional and spiritual support to people with serious, progressive illness and their families in Northern Virginia, Washington D.C. and Prince Georges County, Maryland. For more information about Capital Hospice, please visit www.capitalhospice.org.
SOURCE Capital Hospice
(c) 2007 U.S. Newswire. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.