Dr Ira Byock

Dr Byock MD is Director of Palliative Medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Centre in Lebanon, New Hampshire, Chair of Palliative Medicine and Professor, Departments of Anaesthesiology and Community and Family Medicine, at Dartmouth Medical School.

Dr Byock has been involved in hospice and palliative care since 1978, during his residency. He is past president (1997) or the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. During the 1990’s he was a co-founder and principal investigator for the Missoula Demonstration Project, a community-based organisation in Montana. From 1996 through 2006, he served as director for Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life care, a national grand programme of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

He has authored numerous articles on the ethics and practice of hospice, palliative and end-of-life care. His first book, Dying Well (1997) has become a standard in the field. His most recent book, The Four Things That Matter Most (2004), is used as a counselling tool widely by palliative care and hospice programmes.

He was awarded the American College of CHEST Physicians Roger Bone Memorial Lecture Award (2003) and the Outstanding Colleague Award (2008) of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains.