Speakers

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Dr. Jane Poulson Lecture "Dignity, Personhood and Intensive Caring: New Insights into Patient Suffering" Date: September 17, 2025, 12:00 - 13:00 EST Speaker: Harvey Max Chochinov Location: Osler Amphitheatre, Montreal General Hospital, 1650 Av. Cedar, Montréal, QC H3H 1V6 Learning Objectives Attendees will be introduced to a body of empirical research detailing the experimental landscape of palliative/end-of-life care. Attendees will understand how to apply considerations of human dignity in clinical care. Attendees will be given an overview of the core tenets of intensive caring; and applications to addressing patients' suffering.		Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov is a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Manitoba and a Senior Scientist at CancerCare Manitoba Research Institute. His research in palliative care has resulted in more than 350 career publications, which have been cited about 20,000 times, broaching diverse topics such as depression, quality-of-life, suicide, vulnerability, spirituality, and existential distress. He has also led a large program of research on dignity within the healthcare setting, which includes the development and study of Dignity Therapy. He is the co-founder of the Canadian Virtual Hospice, co-editor of The Handbook of Psychiatry in Palliative Medicine (Oxford University Press). His latest book is entitled Dignity in Care: The Human Side of Medicine, published by Oxford University Press. He is an Officer in the Order of Canada, and an inductee into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
October Lecture Date: October 15, 2025, 12:00 - 13:00 EST Speaker: Maria Bakitas Location: RI Institute (MUHC), 1001 Decarie Blvd, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1		Marie Anne Bakitas, DNSc, NP-C (ret.), AOCN, ACHPN, FPCN, FAAN, is professor, School of Nursing, Associate Director, Center for Palliative and Supportive Care, Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology, and Palliative Medicine, Department of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and co-chair, Palliative Care Committee, SWOG Cancer Clinical Trials Network. She has developed innovative methods, such as tele-health & tele-consultation, to increase palliative and supportive care access for rural, under-represented, and under-resourced persons with serious illness & their family caregivers. She has had a sustained and diverse NIH and foundation-funded program of research which includes persons with serious illness from cancer, heart failure, COPD, and cystic fibrosis. She has international collaborators in Singapore, Turkey, and Iran to bring palliative care to everyone, everywhere, every time it’s needed. Dr. Bakitas has published over 200 original data-based papers, book chapters and books. She is a member of the Sigma Nursing Research Hall of Fame, a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a Fellow of Palliative Care Nursing.
The Honourable Hartland de Montarville Molson Lecture Date: November 19, 2025, 12:00 - 13:00 EST Speaker: Lori Wiener Location: Montreal Children's Hospital, Room TBC		Lori Wiener, Ph.D. is an expert in psychosocial care for pediatric, adolescent, and young adult patients with critical illness. As a clinician and behavioral scientist, Dr. Wiener is interested in understanding the psychosocial experiences and needs of youth living with cancer or other serious illness. As co-director of the Behavioral Health Core and head of the Psychosocial Support and Research Program she has developed a robust clinical and research program that has focused on critical clinical issues such as parental coping, lone parenting, transnational parenting, sibling and sibling donor experiences, graph versus host disease, and end-of-life planning. This work has led to the creation of innovative resources such as books, workbooks, therapeutic games and an advance care planning guide for children, adolescents, and young adults. Each of these resources are distributed worldwide and widely utilized in pediatric centers. Dr. Wiener proudly led the team that developed the first evidence-based psychosocial standards of care for children with cancer and their family members helped develop the Pediatric Psycho-Oncology Professionals website, which was created to foster international collaborations in clinical care, research, and education in this field.
Bernard J. Lapointe Lecture Date: December 10, 2025, 12:00 - 13:00 EST Speaker: Megan Doherty Location: Aberman Auditorium, A-102. Jewish General Hospital, 3755 Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montréal, QC H3T 1E2		Dr. Megan Doherty recently joined the WHO as a consultant for palliative care. She is a palliative medicine physician, originally from Ottawa, Canada. Throughout her career she has worked in wide variety of settings globally, developing clinical palliative care services and training programs. While serving on the executive committee of PallCHASE, she worked to establish models of palliative care suitable for humanitarian settings in Asia and Africa. She is passionate about developing tools and guidelines in palliative care which can enhance the quality of care and reduce suffering.

Previous Lectures

Balfour Mount Lecture "Palliative Care as a Place of Healing" Date: January 21, 2025, 12:00 - 13:00 EST Speaker: Dr. Michael Kearney Location: RI Institute (MUHC), 1001 Decarie Blvd, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1 Learning Objectives Analyze the concept of healing and argue its central role in the palliative care mandate. Apply strategies for fostering healing in patients and families through clinical practice in palliative care. Integrate a comprehensive model of "deep resilience" and self-care 2.0 to ensure the sustainability and enjoyment of a long-term career in palliative care.		Michael Kearney, MD has over 40 years of experience in palliative care and has worked closely with two pioneers in the field, Dame Cicely Saunders and Professor Balfour Mount. He has published four books: Mortally Wounded: Stories of Soul Pain, Death, and Healing, A Place of Healing: Working with Nature and Soul at the End of Life, The Nest in the Stream, and his most recent book, Becoming Forest- A Story of Deep Belonging, a fable of a young Irish woman who finds an antidote for her burnout and climate despair in the wisdom of trees, published by All Night Books. He was lead author on an article about burnout and resilience published in JAMA in 2009 entitled, “Self-care of physicians working at the end-of-life.” He teaches nationally and internationally. Michael is now semi-retired, still working part-time in palliative care and offering mentoring and training in deep resilience through an initiative he founded, “The Becoming Forest Project.” He is married to psychologist, meditation teacher, and author Radhule Weininger PhD. Together they co-founded a non-profit, Mindful Heart Programs, which offers free, daily meditations. They teach and write together and share six adult children between them. For more information, visit: https://michaelkearneymd.com http://becomingforest.com http://mindfulheartprograms.org
Teresa Dellar Lecture "What I've learned about accompaniment, death and bereavement: 29 years of psychological services at the heart of an MUHC care team (1986-2015)" This lecture will be delivered in French. Closed captions will be available in English (or other languages) for those attending online. Date: February 19, 2025, 12:00 - 13:00 EST Speaker: Johanne De Montigny Location: Teresa Dellar Palliative Care Residence, 265 Rue André-Brunet, Kirkland, QC H9H 3R4 Learning Objectives Analyze the last words and the metaphors of the person who is at the end of life, so as to extract their essential meanings, while providing an understanding to loved ones, and thus facilitating the ultimate separation process. Determine that the death of a loved one is a significant, intimate, and unique event, and analyze its impact on those concerned, identifying the meanings they bring as part of their grieving process. Recognize that the “non-return” and “never again” of death puts it in marked contrast to other losses that humans may experience, and demonstrate the key role of the caregiving team in supporting the grieving process from its earliest stages.		Johanne de Montigny, M.A.Ps. Clinical psychologist (1988-2015) Retired member of the OPQ (2024) PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND After surviving a plane crash in which 17 people died (Quebec, 1979), Johanne de Montigny turned her attention to the future. She undertook studies in psychology and was the first clinical psychologist to work in a palliative care hospital unit in Canada. In collaboration with Dr. Balfour M. Mount of Montreal's Royal Victoria Hospital, she set up psychological services to accompany patients and support bereaved families. Using a humanistic approach, she worked for nearly thirty years in this interdisciplinary environment, where she trained and supervised more than twenty psychologists practicing in Quebec and France (1988-2015). At the same time, she supervised some fifteen psychologists in private practice until 2024. Johanne de Montigny has collaborated with Quebec's health and social services network, giving training sessions to caregivers and volunteers involved in support, helping relationships and the psychology of bereavement and dying. She has trained more than 1,500 volunteers in the helping professions in a dozen Quebec cities. Johanne de Montigny has helped organize numerous international conferences - for the McGill University Health Centre - and provincial - for the Association québécoise de soins palliatifs. In the 1990s, she took part in the first working group of the federal initiative to combat HIV/AIDS led by Dr. Bernard J. Lapointe, and co-authored the report “Putting an end to the isolation” of people affected by HIV and AIDS. A lecturer at the Université de Montréal, Johanne de Montigny gave teachings under the Certificat de gérontologie sur les approches palliatives (2009-2015) and, at the Université du Québec à Montréal, at the Centre d'études sur la mort (1996-2006). She has given a series of multidisciplinary training courses on attachment, separation and bereavement at the Hôpital de Beauvais in France (2007-2009). She has given hundreds of lectures on the dying process, bereavement, survival, the meaning of suffering and resilience. A consultant to the management of Le repos Saint-François d'Assise cemetery in Montreal, she has instituted monthly evening meetings on bereavement, as well as an annual symposium designed for people who have lost a loved one. She has published four books and numerous texts on end-of-life and bereavement for the general public and healthcare professionals alike. Johanne de Montigny's honours include the Professional Award from the Ordre des psychologues du Québec (2018), the Recognition Award from the Association québécoise de soins palliatifs (2019) and the King Charles III Coronation Medal (2025).
Sheila-Kussner Hope & Cope Lecture "The Heart of the Matter: Personal Reflections on Caring and Being Cared For" Date: March 26, 2025, 12:00 - 13:00 EST Speaker: Jim Mulcahy Location: Aberman Auditorium, A-102. Jewish General Hospital, 3755 Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montréal, QC H3T 1E2 Learning Objectives Understand the complex interplay of grief and anticipatory grief experienced by patients and caregivers affected by serious illness. Analyze the impact of strong healthcare provider-patient relationships on the quality of palliative care and patient experience. Evaluate the connection between the ability to provide compassionate care in challenging circumstances, healthcare professionalism, and health system sustainability.		Born, raised, and educated in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Mr. Mulcahy and his partner Sarah Kapp spent the first few years of their marriage in a small outport on the West Coast of Newfoundland where Jim taught high school English, and Sarah was a lab tech in a nearby satellite hospital. A few years later, they moved back to Nova Scotia to the university town of Antigonish where Sarah continued her lab work at St. Martha’s Regional Hospital and Jim began what would turn out to be a thirty-year career teaching junior and senior high English and drama. In his early fifties Jim was diagnosed with his first cancer. A little over a year later Sarah was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. In subsequent years three of their four children were diagnosed with the same incurable illness. Shortly after these diagnoses, Jim was diagnosed with a second cancer which resulted in an autologous stem cell transplant operation, and his reluctant resignation from his teaching career. Over the next dozen or so years, Jim was the primary caregiver for Sarah throughout her slow deterioration and death, one month shy of their 47th anniversary. A number of years later, a subsequent and personally restorative long distance relationship ended when Jim’s new partner died suddenly from an aggressive case of glioblastoma. Months after her death, Jim was diagnosed with his third cancer for which he is now in active treatment. As a result of the various illnesses which have haunted and will continue to haunt his family, Jim has become heavily involved in issues relating to cancer and hospice/palliative care as a family/patient advocate. He has served on a wide variety of committees at the local, provincial, and national levels focused on enhancing quality hospice/palliative care and continues to personally volunteer in the Palliative Care and Chemo Clinic Units at St. Martha’s Hospital. He has also been the keynote speaker at multiple hospice/palliative care conferences across Canada, experiences he has always found to be personally rejuvenating and inspirational. In his opinion, quality hospice/palliative care provides an exemplary model of civility and compassion in an increasingly fractious world.
Neuro Supportive Care Lecture "Integrating Palliative Care into Stroke Care – Opportunities and Challenges" Date : April 30, 2025, 12:00 - 13:00 EST Speaker: Claire Creutzfeldt Location: Jeanne Timmins Auditorium, Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), 3801 University Street, Montreal, QC H3A 2B4 Learning Objectives Evaluate the impact of severe acute brain injury on the individual and society. Describe research in our center related to palliative care needs, communication, and decision-making after severe stroke. Discuss challenges and opportunities in integrating palliative care into neurology and stroke care.		Dr. Creutzfeldt received her medical degree from the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität in Munich, Germany and completed her neurology residency, her stroke fellowship as well as a post-graduate training in Palliative Care and board certification in Neurocritical care at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA.  Dr. Creutzfeldt’s research focuses on integrating palliative care into the emergent and ongoing care of patients with severe acute brain injury and their families, including people affected by stroke, traumatic brain injury and cardiac arrest. Dr. Creutzfeldt has co-edited a book on Neuropalliative care and has authored several peer-reviewed manuscripts with a focus on neuropalliative care, communication and decision-making for people facing severe neurologic illness. She has been funded by the Cambia Health Foundation, National institute of Neurologic Diseases and Stroke, National Institute of Aging and the National Institute of Nursing Research.
J. Craig Miller Lecture for Cedars "Early Palliative Care in Oncology: Evidence and Practice" Date : May 21, 2025, 12:00 - 13:00 EST Speaker: Camilla Zimmermann Location: MUHC, Glen Site (DS1.1427), 1001 Bd Décarie, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1 Learning Objectives Highlight the evidence supporting early integration of palliative care into oncology care Analyze the barriers to scalable implementation of this evidence Identify future directions and create opportunities to enhance the scalability of this evidence		Dr. Camilla Zimmermann is Head of the Department of Supportive Care at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, Canada, which includes Palliative Care, Psychosocial Oncology, and Cancer Rehabilitation & Survivorship. She is also Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Head of the Division of Palliative Care at the University Health Network, and was the inaugural director of the Division of Palliative Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is a Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Research Institute and holds the Harold and Shirley Lederman Chair in Palliative Care and Psychosocial Oncology. Dr. Zimmermann developed a large, internationally recognized clinical and research program focused on early integration of palliative care for patients with advanced cancer and has published more than 250 peer-reviewed papers. She serves on numerous international committees including as Board Member for the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer and Faculty Member of the European Society for Medical Oncology. She is an editor for the current edition of the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine and Associate Editor for the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
St. Mary's Hospital Lecture "Improving Palliative Care Outreach With Evidence-Based Tools" Date: June 18, 2025, 12:00 - 13:00 EST Speaker: Marian Grant Location: Auditorium (basement level), St Mary's Hospital Center, 3830 Av. Lacombe, Montréal, QC H3T 0A2 Learning Objectives Review common public misconceptions about palliative care. Consider evidence-based principles in messages to promote palliative care access. Apply text and images from an online palliative care messaging toolkit.		Marian Grant is a policy consultant for the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC), the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC), and the National Patient Advocacy Foundation, as well as a marketing consultant for the University of Washington’s MessageLab Serious Illness Messaging project and VitalTalk. Dr. Grant maintains a clinical practice as a palliative care nurse practitioner at the University of Maryland Medical Center. She is adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins Schools of Nursing. In 2014, Dr. Grant was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow working on Capitol Hill and at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. Dr. Grant has served on the board of the Carolinas Center and the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association. She speaks nationally and internationally on palliative care, messaging, and health policy. Before becoming a nurse, Dr. Grant had a career in marketing at the Procter & Gamble Company and worked on the Max Factor and Cover Girl cosmetics brands there. She is the daughter of immigrants and refugees.