Just one year after the controversial death of Terri Schiavo (March 31, 2005), and after heated national discussion about medical ethics, Wayne State University is launching a palliative care center to promote quality end-of-life care for terminally ill patients and their families.

Michael Stellini, M.D.

Pain, suffering, death and loss are universal to the human condition, but are most often not adequately addressed by the health care community. Wayne State University’s newly established Center to Advance Palliative-care Excellence (CAPE) is an interdisciplinary group of health care professionals and other researchers from throughout the campus. Their philosophy is that excellent medical care offers patients relief of suffering, healing and wholeness even as death approaches.

CAPE’s grand opening, ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony will take place on Wednesday, April 12, at 4 p.m. at Wayne State University’s Cohn Building (5557 Cass Avenue) in Detroit. The event is open to the public.

CAPE Director Robert Zalenski, M.D., WSU Brooks F. Bock endowed professor of emergency medicine, says that too often patients, though terminally ill, are led to believe that death is optional rather than inevitable; doctors trained to save people are uncomfortable “allowing” them to die in a way consistent with the patients’ wishes; and families faced with the mortality of loved ones hear the word “hospice” and mistakenly believe that it means “no treatment and no hope.”

The CAPE mission is to integrate palliative medicine early in the treatment course, while disease modifying therapy is still being given. “The contemporary physician should be able to assess patients’ needs and support their wishes regarding either time extension and/or a comfort- based approach, whether such decisions need to be made in the emergency department, ICU, medical ward or outpatient setting,” Dr. Zalenski said.

Wayne State University faculty from the School of Medicine, College of Nursing, and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are treating patients, counseling families and training health care professionals to address issues of humanistic medicine, pain management, medical ethics, advocacy and end-of-life research.

“The research we do, the care we provide and the physicians we train will make a significant difference in the way that life, death and illness are experienced. We’d like to see that model extended throughout the medical community and the entire society to reverse our general avoidance of these difficult issues,” said Michael Stellini, M.D., CAPE’s associate director for clinical palliative care and WSU assistant professor of internal medicine.

With more than 1,000 students, the Wayne State University School of Medicine is the nation\'s third largest medical school. Together with its clinical partners, the Wayne State University Physician Group, the Detroit Medical Center and other area health-care providers, the school is a leader in medical research and patient care with emphases on cancer; maternal-child health; neurosciences; and population studies and urban health.