The Vermont Ethics Network, in partnership with the Palliative Care and Pain Management Task Force and the Northeastern Vermont Area Health Education Center (AHEC), presented a conference, titled “A Bridge to Healing: Insights into the Management of Pain and Suffering” on Wednesday, April 3, 2013. The University of Vermont and Fletcher Allen Health Care were among the supporters of the event, which included presentations by several UVM College of Medicine faculty members.

The event featured two special guest speakers – Jane Abrahm, M.D., and Eric Cassell, M.D.  Abrahm is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, division chief of adult palliative Care in the Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a hematologist/oncologist who has served as a full-time palliative medicine specialist for more than 15 years. She is author of A Physician’s Guide to Pain and Symptom Management in Cancer Patients, the third edition of which is due to be published in 2013. Cassell is a clinical professor of public health emeritus in the division of medical ethics at Weill Cornell Medical College and a retired internal medicine specialist. He is the author of The Healer's Art, The Place of the Humanities in Medicine, Changing Values in Medicine, two volumes on doctor patient communication titled Talking with Patients, Doctoring: The Nature of Primary Care Medicine, and The Nature of Suffering, now in its second edition. A new book, The Nature of Healing, is in the works.

UVM faculty who presented at the breakout sessions include Cristine Maloney, M.D., clinical assistant professor of medicine and an internist at Gifford Medical Center in Randolph, Vt.; Brian Erickson, M.D., clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and a psychiatrist at Fletcher Allen’s Center for Pain Medicine; Ursula McVeigh, M.D., assistant professor of family medicine and interim medical director of palliative care medicine at Fletcher Allen Health Care.

Learn more about the conference.