Dr. Harvey Fineberg, President, National Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, was the keynote speaker at the 2010 SIO Conference in New York City. Dr. Fineberg spoke November 12, 2010. Following is a summary of his speech as well as a detailed biography.

“Cancer Care for the Whole Patient” by Harvey Fineberg, President, National Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (Reported by James Moss, Esq.)

The focus of integrative care should be what the patient needs at a precise time. If the focus is on acute care only it is incomplete.The consequences of disease and treatment have implications about how a person works, lives and loves.

Doctors need to attend to pycho-social aspects of the patient. More than 4 out of 10 people in the U.S. will experience cancer directly or indirectly. 1 out of 6 patients after leaving the doctor’s office after being treated for cancer do not receive answers to questions important to the patient. There is a gap between what the patient needs to know and what is communicated by the caregivers.

Most people are overwhelmed when they are diagnosed with cancer and feel that their body has betrayed them. As a result, the physician must be ready to discuss options when the patient is ready.

Doctors need training regarding the emotional as well as the intellectual needs of the patient.Contemporary good practice means working as a team which includes doing more to enable nurses to do what they are trained to do.

Biography:

Harvey V. Fineberg is President of the Institute of Medicine. He served as Provost of Harvard University from 1997 to 2001, following thirteen years as Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. He has devoted most of his academic career to the fields of health policy and medical decision making. His past research has focused on the process of policy development and implementation, assessment of medical technology, evaluation and use of vaccines, and dissemination of medical innovations.

Dr. Fineberg helped found and served as president of the Society for Medical Decision Making and also served as consultant to the World Health Organization. At the Institute of Medicine, he has chaired and served on a number of panels dealing with health policy issues, ranging from AIDS to new medical technology. He also served as a member of the Public Health Council of Massachusetts (1976-1979), as chairman of the Health Care Technology Study Section of the National Center for Health Services Research (1982-1985), and as president of the Association of Schools of Public Health (1995-1996).

Dr. Fineberg is co-author of the books Clinical Decision Analysis, Innovators in Physician Education, and The Swine Flu Affair, an analysis of the controversial federal immunization program against swine flu in 1976. He has co-edited several books on such diverse topics as AIDS prevention, vaccine safety, and understanding risk in society. He has also authored numerous articles published in professional journals. Dr. Fineberg is the recipient of several honorary degrees and the Joseph W. Mountin Prize from the US Centers for Disease Control. He earned his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University.