Dr. Melissa Bender in the DFM and section of PC presented a session at the Annual American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine / Hospice and Palliative Medicine Assembly in Chicago, IL, in February 2016. The presentation covered a new comfort care order set which incorporated excellent clinical information with tandem teaching points for staff and learners using the order set in hospitals, especially at UWMC and Harborview Medical Center (HMC). Dr. Bender also presented her research findings of surveys of nurses and providers on their knowledge and confidence of using comfort care orders. She was joined in her presentation by Dr. Caroline Hurd, Nicole Solvang, RN, Kathy Colagrossi, RN, Diane Matsuwaka, PharmD.
Lu Marchand, MD presented a poster on “Existential suffering in advance cancer: the buffering effects of narrative” with Meg Wise, PhD, from the University of Wisconsin. The poster summarized their findings on a randomized clinical trial of dignity therapy/life review in advanced cancer patients. Their work found that this intervention increased a sense of meaning, and buffered against increasing depression. 
Lu Marchand, MD and Greg Malone, MA, MDiv, BCC, spiritual care provider on UWMC PC service, participated and were on the planning committee for the annual Service of Remembrance that honors patients and colleagues who have died in the previous year. Dr Marchand presented a tribute to Dr Stu Farber, who created the UWMC PC service in 2005. He died one year ago. It was a moving and wonderful service which featured the blues in music and art.
Congratulations to James Fausto for being recognized as a Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. This distinction is one of the highest honors the Academy can bestow on a physician. This honor is achieved by physicians whose professional activity is devoted to the practice of hospice and palliative medicine.