"Diversity in Dying: Improving Palliative Care in a Multicultural Society," the cover story in this issue of the PDIA newsletter, explores the efforts of PDIA faculty scholars and grantees to understand and respond to the ways that cultural backgrounds and individual preferences influence the provision of care. The issues raised in the article illustrate the complexities of providing appropriate end-of-life care as the field of palliative care grows and matures.

Among the leaders responsible for the growth in palliative care are the five physicians-three faculty scholars and two PDIA grantees-featured in the article, "Signs of Progress: New Chairs Advance Palliative Care in Hospitals." All five were recently promoted into leadership positions in New York City hospitals.

According to PDIA Director Kathleen M. Foley, M.D., the five new chairs in New York City represent only a small percentage of the growing number of chairs and palliative care programs established in the last few years in hospitals around the country. "We're beginning to see the impact of developing these leaders in palliative care and their ability to institutionalize change within their hospitals," she said. An early leader in palliative care, Foley herself holds the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Chair in Cancer Pain Research.

These two stories also illustrate why the Faculty Scholars Program is one of PDIA's most successful initiatives with a total of 58 scholars now working in nearly a third of the 141 medical schools in the United States and Canada. "Each of the medical schools where the scholars are affiliated have major projects on improving end-of-life care, whether in research, the delivery of services, or education," Susan Block, M.D., director of the Faculty Scholars Program, said. "In all these ways, the scholars are participating in a cultural transformation that isn't completed yet but has certainly made significant progress in the past five years."

Read the newsletter (archived material)