Increased Attention to Pain and Dying

The readers of the Archives might be interested in 2 recently completed projects. First, the American Board of Internal Medicine, under the leadership of Christine Cassel, MD, chair, End-of-Life Patient Care Project, and Linda Blank, vice president, Clinical Competence, has published a 2-part series, Caringfor the Dying. Currently being distributed to all program directors in internal medicine and its subspecialties, this publication is truly an exceptional undertaking as it deals with both the needed competencies and attitudes of physicians who care for the dying.The second project was a conference convened in April 1996 at the Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ, with the support of the Project on Death in America of the Open Society Institute under the auspices of the Association of Academic Health Centers. Senior representatives were present from the American boards of Internal Medicine and Family Practice, the residency review committees for internal medicine, family practice