ATSU-KCOM to host Spirituality in Medicine Conference

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. (Sept. 2, 2008 ) – A.T. Still University’s Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine (ATSU-KCOM) will host its Cultural Competency and Spirituality in Medicine Conference September 12-13, 2008. The conference will explore spirituality in medicine and spiritually/culturally competent care. Topics will include patient values, belief systems, cultural and psychosocial factors in health practices, the nature of suffering, and self-care concepts.

Students and professionals who are interested in these topics are encouraged to attend. The registration fee is $20 and includes all conference materials and a continental breakfast and lunch on September 13. The registration fee is $10 for students, and KCOM students may attend the conference for free. The registration deadline is Wednesday, September 10. For registration materials and more information contact Carrie Gaines, sponsored projects coordinator, at 660.626.2860 or cgaines@atsu.edu.

Pauline W. Chen, M.D., is the keynote speaker and will discuss “The Tyranny of Diagnosis: One Surgeon’s Search for What Really Matters.” Dr. Chen, a liver transplant and liver cancer surgeon, is the author of “Final Exam: A Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality” (2007), a New York Times bestseller. She graduated from Harvard University and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and completed her surgical training at Yale University, the National Cancer Institute (National Institutes of Health), and UCLA, where she was most recently a faculty member in the Department of Surgery. In 1999, she was named the UCLA Outstanding Physician of the Year.

This conference is sponsored in part by The George Washington Institute for Spirituality in Health Spirituality and Medicine Curricular and Residency Training Program Award funded by the John Templeton Foundation and ATSU’s Pre-doctoral Training in Primary Care, Grant Number D56HP08338 funded by the Division of Medicine, Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services. GWISH is funded by the John Templeton Foundation.