| Susan D. Block Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Harvard Medical School 44 Binney Street, SW411 Boston, MA 02115 Phone: 617.632.6181 Fax: 617.632.6189 E-Mail: sblock@partners.org |
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Educational and professional experience: |
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| 1972 | A.B. Stanford University | ||
| 1977 | M.D. Case Western Reserve University | ||
| 1977-80 | Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, MA |
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| 1979-82 | Residency in Psychiatry, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, MA | ||
| 1982-85 | Medical Director, Hospice of Cambridge | ||
| 1982-86 | Director of Psychiatry Primary Care Training, The Cambridge Hospital | ||
| 1982-95 | Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School | ||
| 1983-88 | Assistant Director, The New Pathway Project in General Medicine Education | ||
| 1988-93 | Associate Director of Training & Education, Massachusetts Mental Health Center | ||
| 1992-98 | Director of Medical Education Evaluation Research, Department of Ambulatory Care and prevention, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Harvard Medical School | ||
| 1994- | Associate Physician, Brigham and Women's Hospital | ||
| 1995-0 | Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Ambulatory Care and Prevention | ||
| 1998- | Chief, Division of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital | ||
| 1999- | Co-Director, HMS Center for Palliative Care | ||
| 2000- | Associate Professor of Psychiatry (Medicine) | ||
| 2006- | Professor of Psychiatry (Medicine) | ||
Current teaching and research interests: |
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| Susan D. Block, M.D is the Chief of the Division of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care at Dana-Farber and Brigham and Women's Hospital and Co-Director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Palliative Care, a national center of excellence in palliative care education. Dr. Block received her AB from Stanford University, her MD from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and completed residencies in both internal medicine and psychiatry at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. She is board-certified in both fields. Throughout her career, Dr. Block has had a strong interest in enhancing humanistic competencies of physicians and improving care of patients with life-threatening illness. She has been a leader in the development of the field of Palliative Medicine nationally and has been responsible for the development of innovative educational programs for medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty. She has trained more than 800 faculty nationally and internationally in palliative medicine. From 1994-2004, she was the National Program Director for the Project on Death in America (PDIA) Faculty Scholars Program and a member of the Board of the PDIA, which created much of the infrastructure for the field of palliative medicine. |
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| Dr. Block is a member of the ACGME Advisory Committee for Hospice and Palliative Care and serves as a Trustee of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She has been recognized by many organizations for her achievements in medical education and palliative care; these include the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Veterans Administration and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine for national leadership in education and research. Her research interests are in the areas of physician factors that influence clinical outcomes, mental health aspects of cancer, and in medical education reform. She has numerous publications and grants to evaluate and improve education in palliative care. | |||
Personal background and interests: |
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| I grew up in Berkeley, California in an academic family, and gravitated toward medicine as a way to do social change. My husband, Andy Billings, and I have two boys, Josh, age 21, now a junior at Harvard, and Gabe, who is 19 and a sophomore at Yale. Being a parent has been the most amazing and meaningful adventure I could possibly imagine. In addition to the joy of watching our children grow into wonderful, interesting, and caring young adults, parenting has taught me a lot about the passage of time, about growth and learning, and about the extraordinary power of love and connection. I treasure those lessons and try to live them. After a rocky time adjusting to the realities of an empty nest, Andy and I are learning to enjoy this new phase of life. We are lucky to have wonderful friends, meaningful work, and incredible opportunities to travel and have new experiences. I am a nut about dogs, love to read, and am happiest when I am on a hiking trail or ski slope somewhere in the mountains. I have found a wonderful niche for myself in palliative care, and feel that this work both calls upon and nurtures my deepest intellectual, emotional, and spiritual resources. As the field of palliative care has grown, I fell lucky to have found an incredible community of colleagues, whom I respect as clinicians, and admire and care about as people. Having the opportunity to share this work with Andy is an added bonus. | |||
