NEW YORK—The Project on Death in America (PDIA) of the Open Society Institute and the Emily Davie and Joseph S. Kornfeld Foundation today announced grants to 7 palliative care fellowship programs across the country. The grants, totaling $1,050,000, will support the training of physicians in the principles and practice of palliative care.
"This new funding initiative is designed to help build capacity of fellowship programs and to help establish palliative medicine as a recognized subspecialty of medicine," said Dr. Kathleen Foley, Director of the Project on Death in America.
Dr. Foley added that the field of palliative care is at an important juncture. "Palliative medicine as a field is well positioned to attain subspecialty status. Many of the necessary elements are in place, but based on the experiences of other medical specialties like emergency medicine or geriatrics, we believe that it will take time. Increased support for existing and new graduate fellowship programs is crucial. We encourage other foundations to join our newly formed Funders Consortium to Advance Palliative Medicine."
Christopher C. Angell, President of the Emily Davie and Joseph S. Kornfeld Foundation added, "The Kornfeld Foundation is pleased to begin this new partnership with PDIA to establish palliative care as an integral part of medical education and our health care system."
Palliative care works aggressively to relieve pain and other physical symptoms of patients with serious illness. It also offers emotional support to the patient and family, while respecting their culture and traditions. Palliative care training for the nation's physicians lags far behind the needs of the aging U.S. population.
PDIA and the Kornfeld Foundation awarded 2-year grants of $150,000 each to 7 fellowship programs that demonstrate institutional commitment to palliative care training. The programs teach the major areas of knowledge and skills covered by palliative medicine training: the assessment and management of physical, psychological, and spiritual suffering faced by patients with life-limiting illnesses and their families, including communication, ethical and legal decision making, pain and symptom management, bereavement support for the family, and interdisciplinary team work. The selected programs are:
- The Palliative Care Program at Marshfield Clinic, Marshfield, WI
- The Hospice/Palliative Training Program at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM
- Combined Fellowship in Pediatric and Adult Palliative Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals, Milwaukee, WI
- The Pain and Palliative Care Service in the Department of Neurology of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
- Center for Palliative Studies at San Diego Hospice, San Diego, CA
- The Palliative Care and Home Hospice Program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL
- Palliative Care Fellowship Program, Section of Palliative Care and Medical Ethics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
The mission of the Project on Death in America is to understand and transform the culture and experience of dying and bereavement through initiatives in research and scholarship, and to foster innovations in the provision of care, public education, professional education, and public policy. PDIA is a U.S. Program of the Open Society Institute, part of the Soros network of Foundations active in more than 50 countries around the world. OSI-US promotes programs that strengthen democracy and address barriers to justice and opportunity. OSI supports initiatives in access to justice for low and moderate income people; judicial independence; ending the death penalty; reducing gun violence and over-reliance on incarceration; drug policy reform; inner-city education and youth programs; fair treatment of immigrants; reproductive health and choice; campaign finance reform; and improved care of the dying.
The Emily Davie and Joseph S. Kornfeld Foundation was established by Emily Davie Kornfeld in 1979. Mrs. Kornfeld's personal philanthropy supported medical research in the control and treatment of pain, as well as efforts directed at enhancing individual choice in medical treatment and dying. In the last decade, the Foundation has expanded its interests to include bioethics, patient care, medical research, and education.