School participating in program to pioneer education for end-of-life care

The University of Louisville School of Medicine is participating in a program to develop curriculum that will give students training in an area which traditionally hasn't been emphasized.

The school is one of only six in the United States selected to develop and implement a palliative care curriculum for medical students through an initiative funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. UofL has featured a graduate palliative care fellowship program since 2004.

Palliative care addresses a patient's physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs and seeks to improve not only the patient's quality of life, but also that of his or her family. Instead of attempting to cure disease, palliative care focuses on easing symptoms of chronic or terminal illness.

"Compassionate palliative care is a moral imperative," said School of Medicine Dean Edward Halperin, M.D., M.A. "A society is fairly judged by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. We are pleased to be in the forefront of moving palliative care into the mainstream of medical education."

UofL was chosen from a pool of 57 medical schools for participation in the program, which is led by the Medical College of Wisconsin, Harvard's Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Other selected schools include Emory University School of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and Oregon Health and Science University.