End-of-Life Care Movement Growing

Abstract

THE END-OF-LIFE movement is gaining momentum thanks to major grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Two of those grants are supporting projects aimed at educating physicians and the public about methods to improve the care of dying patients. In March, the foundation announced a $1.5-million grant establishing the Education for Physicians on End-of-life Care (EPEC) Project to develop a standardized curriculum for the education of physicians in the care of dying patients. The 2-year project is the first major initiative of the American Medical Association's (AMA) Institute for Ethics. The month before, the foundation awarded a $1.7-million grant to a coalition including the AMA and more than 80 major health and consumer organizations to launch an initiative called Last Acts: Care and Caring at the End of Life. The initiative seeks to unite the efforts of these groups to reform current health care practices that adversely affect patients with