Yale Bulletin and Calendar

November 22-December 6, 1999

Volume 28, Number 14

Series to focus on compassionate patient care

The Yale Cancer Center will begin an annual lecture series focusing on compassionate care of cancer patients, thanks to a $50,000 endowment from Dr. David Fischer of Milford in memory of his wife.

The Iris Fischer Lectureship will bring to Cancer Center Grand Rounds a range of health-care professionals from a variety of disciplines involved in the total care of the cancer patient. Topics such as pain management, management of nausea and vomiting, secondary cancers due to radiation or chemotherapy, and palliative care issues will be explored.

In addition, clinical investigators will be invited to discuss new developments in cancer chemotherapy or biological therapies, or both.

"Too often we focus on the disease rather than on the patient," says Fischer, a medical oncologist who chairs Yale-New Haven Hospital's cancer committee for the American College of Surgeons.

"Quality of life is an essential component of treatment," he adds. "When deciding upon a course of therapy for a patient, we must evaluate the options not just in terms of survival by weeks, months or years, but in terms of the overall conditions of survival."

A practicing oncologist in the New Haven area for 35 years, Fischer said compassionate care has remained a cardinal tenet of his philosophy as a physician.

But quality of life issues hold more than a professional interest for Fischer. These issues were of personal concern to him and his wife, Iris, who was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, an incurable disease of the heart and lungs, more than five years ago. The couple's treatment decisions were weighed and balanced against the impact the therapies would have on Iris Fischer's personal well-being.

"It is my hope that this lectureship will serve as a lasting memorial to Iris while providing an educational opportunity for our physicians and staff for the benefit of patients at the Cancer Center," says Fischer.

"Our current generation of physicians emphasizes laboratory medicine, which is extremely important. But we need to shift the balance away from treating only the disease and back to the total care of the patient," he adds.

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