The Alexander Ming Fisher Memorial Lecture on Death and Dying was established in the early 1970s by E. Douglas Southwick to commemorate the life of Alexander Ming Fisher, M.D., a graduate of Columbia University, and to institute a yearly lecture series on the topics of death and dying. Since 1974, Alexander Ming Fisher lecturers have explored a wide variety of issues including family care in terminal illness, death and public policy, the impact of AIDS on the practice of medicine, physician-assisted suicide, Medicare and terminal illness, and genetic engineering and the prolonging of life.

2011-2012 EVENTS

“Care for the Whole Patient: The Science to Cancer Care”

Thursday, November 10, 2011
4:30 p.m.
Hammer Health Sciences Center, room 301
701 West 168th Street

Jimmie C. Holland, M.D.

Jimmie C. Holland, M.D., recognized internationally as the founder of the subspecialty of psycho-oncology, is Attending Psychiatrist and holds the first endowed chair in Psychiatric Oncology, the Wayne E. Chapman Chair at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.  She is Professor of Psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.  She began the first fulltime psychiatric service in a cancer hospital in 1977 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.  From this base, the concept of psycho-oncology evolved to become a nationally recognized subspecialty of oncology.  The Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences has trained over 300 psychologists and psychiatrists. Dr. Holland was PI of the first research grant in psycho-oncology which has continued uninterrupted for 26 years. Several key figures in psycho-oncology trained in the program: David Cella, Paul Jacobsen, Julia Rowland, Jamie Ostroff, Bill Redd, Bill Breitbart, as well as several in Europe.

Dr. Holland studied the prevalence and nature of psychological problems in patients with cancer in the 1970s and established the first committee studying psychological issues in a cooperative group, the Cancer Leukemia Group B.  In the 1980s she became the Founding President of the International Psycho-oncology Society (1984) and of the American Psychosocial Oncology Society (1986).  Dr. Holland has been senior editor of the Oxford University Press textbooks in psycho-oncology, first The Handbook of Psychooncology, (1989); Psycho-Oncology, (1998); and the 2nd Edition (2010). In 1992, she started the first international journal in the field, Psycho-Oncology, and continues as co-editor.  Dr. Holland and Sheldon Lewis co-authored a book to help patients and their families cope with cancer, The Human Side of Cancer, (HarperCollins, 2000). Dr. Holland has chaired the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s (NCCN) Panel on Management of Distress since its beginning in 1997. She served on the Institute of Medicine Multidisciplinary Committee which reported in 2007 that there is a new standard of quality cancer care today which demands that psychosocial interventions must be integrated into routine cancer care and clinical practice guidelines. Dr. Holland has received awards from the American Cancer Society, ASCO, AACR and the American Psychiatric Association. She was elected Member of the Institute of Medicine in 1995.  She is married to Dr. James Holland, pioneer medical oncologist and Editor of the Holland-Frei textbook, Cancer Medicine.  They have 6 children and 10 grandchildren.

1974 - Cicely Saunders, O.B.E., M.R.C.P., medical director, St. Christopher's Hospice, London, England

1975 - Colin Murray Parkes, M.D., Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, London, England

1976 - Jeanne Quint Benoliel, R.D., D.N.Sc., professor and chairman, University of Washington School of Nursing

1977 - Robert Kastenbaum, Ph.D., professor of psychology, University of Massachusetts

1978 - Edwin Schneidman, Ph.D., professor of thanatology, Neuropsychiatric Institute, Unversity of California at Los Angeles

1979 - Leon Kass, M.D., Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Biology, University of Chicago

1980 - Raymond S. Duff, M.D., professor of pediatrics, Yale University

1981 - Alexander M. Capron, L.L.B., executive director, President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research

1983 - Robert Jay Lifton, M.D., Foundation's Fund Research Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University

1984 - Francis D. Moore, M.D., Mosely Professor Emeritus of Surgery, Harvard University

1985 - Ida M. Martinson, R.N., Ph.D., Health Care Nursing, School of Nursing, University of California at San Francisco

1986 - Rev. John Parris, professor of social ethics, Holy Cross College; adjunct professor of medicine, University of Massachusetts

1987 - Merle Sande, M.D., professor of medicine, University of California at San Francisco; chief, medical service, San Francisco General Hospital

1988 - Samuel O. Thier, president, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences

1989 - Edwin Cassem, M.D., acting chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital

1990 - Rabbi Moses Tendler, Rabbi Isaac and Bella Tendler Professor of Medical Ethics, Yeshiva University

1991 - Kenneth Ryan, M.D., professor and chairman, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Brigham and Women's Hospital

1992 - H. Tristram Englehardt, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine and philosophy, Center for Ethics, Medicine and Public Issues, Baylor College of Medicine

1993 - Christine K. Cassel, M.D., F.A.C.P., professor of medicine and public policy studies, chief, Section of General Internal Medicine, University of Chicago Medical Center

1994 - George Soros, founder and chairman, the Soros Foundation

1995 - Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D., clinical professor of surgery, Yale University

1996 - Daniel Callahan, Ph.D., director of international programs, the Hastings Center

1997 - Bruce C. Vladeck, Ph.D., professor of health policy, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine

1998 - Joanne Lynn, M.D., director, Center to Improve the Care of the Dying; professor of health care science, George Washington University School of Medicine

2000 - Neil Gillman, Ph.D., Aaron Rabinowitz & Simon H. Rifkind Professor of Jewish Philosophy, Jewish Theological Seminary of America; Daniel Callahan, Ph.D., director of international programs, the Hastings Center

2001 - Nancy S. Wexler, M.D., Higgins Professor of Neuropsychology, College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University

2004 – James Q. Wilson, Ph.D., Ronald Reagan Professor of Public Policy, Pepperdine University; James Collins Professor Emeritus of Management and Public Policy, UCLA

2004 - Arthur Caplan, Ph.D.,Director, Center for Bioethics Emanuel and Robert Hart Chair of Bioethics Chair, Department of Medical Ethics, University of Pennsylvania

2005 – Kathleen M. Foley, M.D., Attending Neurologist, Pain & Palliative Care Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center , Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience and Clinical Pharmacology, Cornell University Medical College, and Medical Director, International Palliative Care Initiative, Open Society Institute

2006 – Joan Didion is the author of five novels, Run River, Play It as It Lays, A Book of Common Prayer, Democracy, and The Last Thing He Wanted, and eight books of nonfiction, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The White Album, Salvador, Miami, After Henry, Political Fictions, Where I Was From, and The Year of Magical Thinking.  She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  In 2005 she was awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Criticism and Belles Lettres, and also the National Book Award in Nonfiction.

2007 - Thomas H. Murray, Ph.D., President of The Hastings Center

2008 - Brigadier General Loree K. Sutton, M.D., Director, Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, "Waging Hope in the Shadow of Death."

2009 - David Rieff, Journalist and Author

2010 - Betty Lim, M.D., Assistant Professor, Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Director, Samuels Palliative Care Project, Jewish Home Lifecare, New York City

2010 - Robert Pardi Jr., Dr. Desiree Pardi’s husband
Co-Founder & COO, Evolvence Capital

2010 - Craig Blinderman, M.D. (Moderator), Assistant Professor of Palliative Care (in Anesthesiology and Medicine),
Director, Adult Palliative Medicine, Columbia University