J. Andrew Billings, MD, who is credited with pioneering palliative care, died Sept. 6 in Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital at age 69.
From his first day on the job at one of Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital's neighborhood clinics, Dr. Billings was providing end-of-life care to patients, according to his obituary in The Boston Globe.
"Andy, first of all, was a brilliant intellect and someone who saw earlier than many the needs of patients with serious illnesses for relief from all different kinds of suffering: physical suffering, psychological suffering, existential suffering," Diane E. Meier, MD, director of the New York City-based Center to Advance Palliative Care, told The Boston Globe. "Andy was among the first to recognize that those consequences from a serious illness occur from the moment of diagnosis, not just at the end of life."
Dr. Billings' involvement in end-of-life care was extensive. He developed Massachusetts' first hospice program, and was a founding member of both the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital's Palliative Care Service. With his wife, he cofounded Boston-based Harvard Medical School's Center for Palliative Care and authored one of the earliest hospice care textbooks, according to the The Boston Globe.
He wrote one of the first textbooks on hospice care and became one of the first faculty scholars for the Project on Death in America, according to the report.
Dr. Billings died after a two-and-a-half-year battle with lymphoma. In concert with his life's work, Dr. Billings was very clear about his end-of-life wishes, according to the report.
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