Ira Byock, MD

Dr. Ira Byock is an acknowledged visionary and pioneer in palliative care who has made important contributions as a clinician, author and educator. As Founder of the Institute for Human Caring, a component of Providence St. Joseph Health, he drove transformation in clinical systems and culture to make caring for whole persons the new normal. He has been involved in hospice and palliative care since 1978 and his research has contributed to conceptual frameworks for the lived experience of illness along a continuum from suffering to wellbeing; measures for subjective quality of life during illness; and counseling methods to support life completion.

He is a past president of the Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and directed Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care, a national Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program that developed prototypes for concurrent palliative care of people with life-threatening conditions. He directed the palliative medicine program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and continues to be an active emeritus professor of medicine and community & family medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

Ira is the author of Dying Well, The Four Things That Matter Most, and The Best Care Possible, which tackles the crisis that surrounds illness and dying in America and the transformation that is possible. He lectures nationally and internationally and has been a featured guest on CBS' 60 Minutes, PBS News Hour, and NPR's All Things Considered and On Being.