April 14 Lecture to Explore Palliative Care in Serious Illness

NORTHAMPTON — Community members are invited to the next Cooley Dickinson/Massachusetts General Hospital lecture, “Palliative Care in Serious Illness: Living as Well as You Can for as Long as You Can, with Dr. Vicki Jackson, on Thursday, April 14 from 6 to 7 p.m. at Edwards Church in Northampton.

Jackson, chief of the Division of Palliative Care at Mass General, will discuss the needs of patients with serious illness and how to advocate for them. Dr. Jeffrey Zesiger, medical director of Palliative Care at Cooley Dickinson, will introduce Jackson.

Jackson is also co-director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Palliative Care. She completed her internal medicine residency and chief residency at Cambridge Hospital. She received her master’s degree in public health from Harvard School of Public Health during her time as a fellow in the Harvard General Medicine Research Fellowship. She has also completed the Rabkin and Harvard Academy Medical Education Fellowships.

Jackson’s clinical interests include developing and studying early-intervention, collaborative clinical delivery models in palliative-care oncology. She spearheaded the development of a novel outpatient palliative-care clinic at the Mass General Cancer Center and serves as lead palliative-care investigator for several NIH-funded trials evaluating this delivery model. As associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, she has developed communication curricula for palliative-care fellows and attending physicians.

The April 14 lecture is free and open to all. Seating is limited, and registration is required. Register online or call (888) 554-4234. Allow extra time for parking in downtown Northampton.

The program is the culminating event of a series of community conversations with area residents, local librarians, and Cooley Dickinson palliative-care practitioners that focus on end-of-life care and planning. Learn more about the “Being Mortal” community conversations at bit.ly/1U7GKPb.