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In This Issue:
Zara Cooper
At BWH's annual Minority Faculty Career Development Award (MFCDA) Grand Rounds, trauma surgeon Zara Cooper, MD, MSc, a 2005 recipient of the award, spoke about the intersection of surgery and palliative care, which is where her passion lies.
Each year, a different department hosts the MFCDA Grand Rounds, featuring a speaker who is a past awardee. This year, the Department of Surgery hosted the event in collaboration with the BWH Office for Multicultural Faculty Careers. The MFCDA program, founded in 1996, provides financial support to early-career underrepresented minority physicians and scientists at BWH, with the goal of increasing the presence of underrepresented minority faculty across the institution. The seven-year $150,000 award is given to two underrepresented minority faculty members or trainees annually.
This year's winners-Miguel Divo, MD, associate physician in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and Nadia Huancahuari, MD, attending physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine-were presented with their awards by Chief Medical Officer Stan Ashley, MD, prior to Cooper's presentation.
In her remarks, Cooper explained that palliative care, which focuses on preventing or relieving the suffering of patients, is often associated with terminal illness or end-of-life care. However, since it is ultimately about making patients feel better, palliative care should be incorporated into the care of all patients, no matter the illness or stage of disease, she said.
"Palliative care makes patients feel better, and when patients feel better, they live longer," said Cooper, who noted that receiving the MFCDA was instrumental in helping her fulfill her surgical niche.
Cooper illustrated the many similarities between surgery and palliative care, noting that the latter term was first used in 1975 by Canadian surgeon Balfour Mount, who described palliative care as a surgical specialty. In both surgery and palliative care, there is a transfer of power and trust from the patient to the care provider. In turn, there is a pact that the surgeon or physician will not abandon his or her patient.
"The surgical covenant is based on exceptional trust on the part of the patient, ethical action on the part of the surgeon and immediacy," Cooper said. "We become incredibly invested in our patients and their outcomes. We live by the creed, ‘I will not abandon you; I will battle death for you.' Palliative care is the same way. My training in palliative care has helped me fulfill the surgical covenant."