DEATH: THE UPSIDE
Without death, every birth would be a tragedy. We need to learn to see the many positive aspects of death, but the evidence shows both that our society denies death and that this denial causes pain and suffering. Richard Smith, MD discusses the growing movement to rediscover the positive aspects of death.
Richard Smith, MD
Richard Smith, MD
Chair, Board of Trustees, icddr,b
Chair, Patients Know Best
Former editor, BMJ
Tuesday, August 11 | Noon – 1 p.m.
Room 1000, Claudia Nance Rollins Building, Rollins School of Public Health
Pizza will be served
Dr. Smith is chair of the board of trustees of icddr,b (formerly the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh), chair of Patients Know Best (a company that aims to put patients in control of their own medical records and enables them to work with clinicians through the National Health Service Connecting for Health network), and chair of the Cochrane Library Oversight Committee.
Until recently, he was director of the UnitedHealth Chronic Disease Initiative, a program with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute that has created 11 centers in low- and middle-income countries that research, build capacity, and advise on policy to reduce the burden of chronic cardiovascular and lung diseases. Before that, he was editor of the BMJ (previously the British Medical Journal) and chief executive of the BMJ Group. Smith worked for the BMJ for 25 years (1979 to 2004), the last 13 as editor. A member of the board of the Public Library of Science from 2004 to 2011, he continues to blog for the BMJ and to publish regularly.
Related Links
• Richard Smith: Dying of Cancer is the Best Death
• icddr,b (formerly the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh)
• Patients Know Best
• UnitedHealth Chronic Disease Initiative
• Emory University School of Medicine
• Emory University Department of Medicine
