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alum notes Fall 2001 - Volume 12, No 4 |
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current issue | past issues | scribe | contact info | home |
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alum notes Fall 2001 - Volume 12, No 4 |
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current issue | past issues | scribe | contact info | home |
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Articles
Neiman Marcus and Medical Alumni Association Host Fashion Event
Alumni Association Welcomes New Officers
Where Are These Missing Members of 2002 Reunion Classes?
A Day in the Life of a Surgical Resident
Three of Hour Detroit's Best Six Doctors from WSU
Dr. Finn Leads National Group for Hospice, Palliative Care
Alum Appointed chief Medical Officer at Karmanos Cancer Institute |
Dr. Finn Leads National Group for Hospice, Palliative Care
“The dying deserve our best care.” These are the words and philosophy of Dr. John Finn, Wayne State alumnus and president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM). Dr. Finn, who is executive medical director of Hospice of Michigan, now leads the AAHPM, the only physician organization in the nation dedicated to the advancement of hospice and palliative medicine. “There is a growing interest in end-of-life care within the medical community because the public is demanding it,” Dr. Finn said. “People who are termainlly ill want to know the truth about their illness and they want support in making their own decisions about their care. They want the best in reasonable and appropriate medical treatment and the best in comfort care at the end of life.” Dr. Finn graduated from the WSU School of Medicine in 1981. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Sinai Hospital in Detroit and a fellowship in medical oncology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. When he became medical director of Hospice of Southeastern Michigan in 1985, his advisors told him he was throwing his career away. Palliative medicine was not a recognized medical specialty, but Dr. Finn wanted to provide dying patients with comfort care instead of aggressive and painful treatments. He completed a fellowship in palliative medicine in Great Britain and became board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. “Centuries ago, doctors knew how to care for the dying,” Dr. Finn said. “They knew how to support the family. They knew that death was part of life and part of medicine. But in recent times, the focus of medicine has been on using high-tech tools to cure, but not necessarily to comfort those who are dying. Palliative medicine can help physicians rediscover the essence of medicine, the tradition of medicine as caring for the whole person and the whole family,” he said. |
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