Palliative care crusader's gift aims to reduce suffering
Date: Sept. 22, 1999
Time: 2:18 pm
Medical advice columnist Dr. Ken Walker's drive to improve pain management for terminally ill patients took another step forward today as the University of Toronto named researcher and clinician Dr. S. Lawrence Librach its first professor in pain control and palliative care.
Dr. Walker, who publishes his advice under the pseudonym "Dr. W. Gifford-Jones", donated $465 000 to U of T last year to create the position and further research on pain control and palliative care. He had collected donations from readers for over 15 years through a foundation bearing the fictitious doctor's name.
"Over the years I've received countless letters from families whose loved ones died from cancer," said Walker, a retired gynecologist in Toronto. "Much remains to be done to control pain in the final stages of cancer and to ease the discomfort associated with many other diseases."
"This is a wonderful opportunity to provide teaching and research that will ultimately reduce unnecessary suffering in those who are terminally ill," said Dr. Librach.
Librach founded the Palliative Care Service at Toronto Western Hospital in 1978 and is a director of the Palliative Care Initiative at Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. He has lectured, conducted workshops and developed several regional and national palliative care education programs.
"I am excited by the prospect of teaching medical students and other health care professionals about better care for terminally ill patients and their families," added Librach.
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