Who is Dr. Ira Byock?
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Ira Byock, MD, FAAHPM is a palliative care physician, author, and public advocate for improving care for people living with serious medical conditions. He has been involved in hospice and palliative care since 1978. His research has contributed to conceptual frameworks for the lived experience of illness; measures for subjective quality of life; and counseling methods for life completion and wellbeing. He is a past president of the Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. From 1996 to 2006 Dr. Byock directed a national grant project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that developed prototypes for concurrent palliative care within mainstream healthcare. From 2003 to 2013, he led the palliative care program for the Dartmouth health system based in Lebanon, N.H. He has spearheaded health service delivery models for concurrent life-extending and palliative care in acute inpatient, outpatient specialty clinics, academic and community-based primary care, long-term and chronic care settings. In 2014 Byock founded the Institute for Human Caring, a component of Providence health system. The Institute drives transformation in clinical systems and culture to make caring for whole persons the new normal. He is the Principal of Clinical Transformation Specialists, PLLC a consulting practice to assist healthcare companies advance highly personalized care though outcomes-oriented systems change. Dr. Byock is an emeritus professor of medicine and community & family medicine at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. He has authored numerous articles in academic journals and opinion essays in national newspapers and online health newsites. His books include Dying Well, The Four Things That Matter Most, and The Best Care Possible. In his fifth decade of professional work, Dr. Byock remains a thought leader in the field of hospice and palliative medicine, lecturing nationally and internationally. He continues to publish frequently. Important recent academic articles include:
• Taking Psychedelics Seriously (2018) in J. Palliative Med
• Core Roles and Responsibilities of Physicians in Hospice Care: A Statement by and for U.S. Hospice and Palliative Care Physicians (2023) J. Palliative Med
• Successful Strategies for Operationalizing Goals-of-Care Documentation (2025) NEJM Catalyst
• A Strategic Path Forward for Hospice and Palliative Care (2025) Palliative Med Reports
Dr. Byock was recognized in 2013 as a Visionary by the Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, and is a recipient of the Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2014).
