RELEASE ON RECEIPT


                                         CONTACT: Katherine Jackson                 
                      
                       HOW TO CARE FOR DYING PATIENTS FOCUS 
                        OF U.VA. CONFERENCE, MARCH 24-25

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., March 21--A recent $28 million Robert Wood 
Johnson Foundation study asked the question how do doctors manage their dying 
patients. The answer: not very well.
	Dr. Joanne Lynn, director of the Center to Improve Care of the Dying 
at George Washington University and a participant in the five-year study, 
said she and her colleagues concluded that "doctors often are oblivious to 
dying patients' wishes, and patients often die in pain, tethered against their 
will to life-prolonging equipment." 
	Lynn will be keynote speaker for the University of Virginia's second 
annual Palliative Care Conference beginning Sunday at 7 p.m. in Jordan Hall.  
The conference runs through Monday.
	U.Va.'s conference expects to bring more than 150 health care 
professionals from the southeast to examine future palliative care needs in 
an ever-changing managed care environment.
	Other expert speakers from various disciplines of hospice and 
palliative care include:
	Dr. Carlos F. Gomez, assistant professor and medical director of 
UVa.'s Center for Hospice and Palliative Care, specializes in the treatment 
of terminally ill patients.  Earlier this month he was the prosecution's only 
witness on medical ethics in Dr. Jack Kevorkian's assisted suicide trial. 

            James F. Childress, Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Religious Studies
and professor of medical education at U.Va., has written extensively on 
biomedical ethics.

            Dr. John C. Rowlingson, professor of anesthesiology and director 
of U.Va.'s pain management center, is nationally recognized for his research 
in pain control.

          VICTORIA TODD, executive director of the Hospice of the Piedmont, 
which serves terminally ill patients from Charlottesville and surrounding 
counties.

	The two-day conference is sponsored by U.Va.'s Center for Hospice and 
Palliative Care, Cancer Center, Continuing Healthcare Education, Office of 
Continuing Medical Education and the Hospice of the Piedmont.  
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                                                March 20, 1996