#020 - Join host Dr. Red Hoffman as she interviews Dr. Preeti John, a surgeon triple board-certified in general surgery, surgical critical care and hospice and palliative medicine.  Preeti currently practices at the VA Maryland Healthcare System in Baltimore and is the Facility LSTDI (Life Sustaining Treatment Decisions Initiative) Director, coordinating all aspects of this Veterans Health Administration's quality improvement initiative in the in-patient and out-patient settings and intensive care units.  Preeti is also a healthcare ethics consultant and serves on the national Societ ..read more

#018 - Join host Dr. Red Hoffman as she interviews Dr. Nancy Glass, who worked as a professor of both Anesthesiology and Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine as well as the Director of Pediatric Pain Management at Texas Children's Hospital.  She now is the Associate Medical Director of Houston Hospice.  Nancy was able to seamlessly integrate her training in pediatrics, pediatric critical care, pain management, anesthesiology and hospice and palliative medicine into the care of the some of the sickest children in the country.  She offers useful tips on how to speak to both si ..read more

#002 - Join host Dr. Red Hoffman as she interviews Dr. Robert Milch, one of the pioneers of the Surgical Palliative Care movement.  Bob discusses the early days of the American College of Surgeon's Surgical Palliative Care Task Force, his career with Hospice Buffalo and what he learned through helping to set up hospice programs throughout the world.  He also shares how some of the giants of surgery, including Dr. Olga Johannson and Dr. James Cameron, were early supporters of the surgical palliative care movement.  Finally, he reminds us of the importance of taking the time to bo ..read more

#008 - Join host Dr. Red Hoffman and co-host Dr. Mackenzie Cook as they interview Dr. Sharmila Dissanaike, professor and Peter C. Canizaro chair of surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.   They have a wide-ranging discussion about leadership, wellness, disaster ethics and the role of social media in academic medicine.  Sharmila shares some of her journey to becoming a chair of surgery, discusses the importance of maintaining a growth mindset and emphasizes the need for all of us to maintain an interest in the nuance of our current situation, rather than on searching ..read more

#014 - Join host Dr. Red Hoffman as she interviews Drs. Kate Aberger and David Wang, emergency medicine physicians who specialize in palliative care.  They are the editors of the recently released book, "Palliative Skills for Frontline Physicians," a collection of case-based vignettes which illustrate how to practically integrate palliative care into all fields of medicine, including surgery, emergency medicine, internal medicine and critical care, among others.  David and Kate discuss how to successfully integrate palliative medicine into the care of emergency room patients, the for ..read more

#004 - Join host Dr. Red Hoffman and co-host Dr. Mackenzie Cook as they interview Dr. Zara Cooper, associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, Kessler Director of the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women's Hospital and a prolific researcher in the field of surgical palliative care.  Zara shares how she first became interested in the field of surgical palliative care, the importance of maintaining curiosity when talking to both patients and fellow surgeons, and the need to make certain that future research in palliative care helps to drive policy change ..read more

#023 - Join host Dr. Red Hoffman as she interviews pharmacist Dr. Mary Lynn McPherson, Professor and Executive Director of the Advanced Post-Graduate Education in Palliative Care in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science at the University of Maryland,  Program Director of the Online Master of Science and Graduate Certificates in Palliative Care (also at University of Maryland), host of the Palliative Care Chat Podcast and author of the very well-known book  Demystifying Opioid Conversion Calculations: A Guide for Effective Dosing.  Lynn is a well-known speaker and a res ..read more

#028 - Join host Dr. Red Hoffman as she interviews Andy Baxter, the founder of the Cunniff-Dixon Foundation.  The Foundation is named in honor of Andy's wife, Carley, who died of breast cancer in 2005, as well as in honor of her physician, Dr. Peter S. Dixon.  The mission of the Cunniff-Dixon Foundation is to enrich the Doctor-Patient relationship near the end of life by fostering human development in medicine and supporting and funding projects relating to Palliative Care.   In 2009, along with the American College of Surgeons, the Foundation produced Surgical Palliative Care ..read more

#022 - Join host Dr. Red Hoffman as she interviews Dr. Dan Hinshaw, professor emeritus of surgery and palliative care consultant at University of Michigan.  Dan discusses how his wife's work with HIV positive veterans first led him to contemplate the nature of  suffering and spirituality.   He shares how his surgical training has made him a more effective palliative care doctor and how his palliative care training made him feel like a "complete surgeon."  Dan offers practical skills about how to take an effective spiritual history and how to share "bad news" while maintaini ..read more

#009 - Join host Dr. Red Hoffman as she interviews Dr. Ira Byock, nationally known author and speaker and the founder and chief medical officer of the Institute for Human Caring at Providence St. Joseph in Southern California.  Ira served as the president of the American Association of Hospice and Palliative Medicine as well as the Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Promoting Excellence in End of Life Care, under which the Surgeons Palliative Care task force (now the Committee on Surgical Palliative Care) was created within the American College of Surgeons.  For those i ..read more