Sept. 14, 2010
Contact Rick Kyte at 608-796-3042 or rlkyte@viterbo.edu
JOHN SLOAN, M.D., TO OPEN D.B. REINHART INSTITUTE FOR ETHICS IN LEADERSHIP’S FALL LECTURE SERIES AT VITERBO UNIVERSITY WITH “A BITTER PILL” OCT. 4
LA CROSSE, Wis. – John Sloan, M.D., author of the book A Bitter Pill: How the Medical System is Failing the Elderly, will open the 2010 D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership’s Fall Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 4 in room 107 of the Reinhart Center.
Sloan will discuss why in his view, medical treatment—from modern medicine’s one-size-fits-all prevention strategy to hospital stays that don’t benefit anyone—is failing seniors. Identifying solutions to the problem, he argues that we must understand what people in poor health at the end of their lives really need—comfort, dignity, and quality of life. He also argues that everyone—caregivers, family members, social workers, must assume responsibility for what happens to the elderly and give these loved ones the kind of care we hope, one day, someone will give us.
Sloan is a senior academic physician in the Department of Family Practice at the University of British Columbia and has spent most of his 30 years of practice caring for the elderly in Vancouver. He has lectured throughout Canada and in Europe and the United States, and is sought after as an inspirational speaker on geriatrics.
The event is free and open to the public. No registration is required, but seating is limited.