Moving Palliative and End-of-life Care Forward

May 17-21, 2010
Tory Building TB 95
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Joachim Cohen, MA, PhD (Sociology)

Senior Researcher, End-of-Life Care Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium.

His program of research focuses on end-of-life care and related issues or trends. His 2007 PhD thesis, entitled “End-of-life decisions and place of death in Belgium and Europe,” focused on three research areas: attitudes of the general public and of physicians towards end-of-life decisions, actual end-of-life decision-making of physicians, and the place of death in Belgium and Europe. This study resulted in 7 published peer-reviewed articles and was awarded the Kubler Ross Award for Young Researchers, an award conferred for excellent contributions to palliative care, thanatology, or end-of-life ethics.

More recently, Dr. Cohen was one of the main investigators of a large epidemiological study of place of death for chronically-ill metropolitan residents in Europe (in comparison to non-metropolitan counterparts), and also a study of the end-of-life care and end-of-life decision-making for patients in the Brussels Metropolitan Area. Among other interests, one of his current research interests is in studying attitudes and preferences of the general public with regard to end-of-life care.

Topic:

• The state of evidence and practice globally on “location” of death
• Canada versus global rural aging and end-of-life trends