Abstract
James Duffy, M.D., Ch.B., F.A.N.P.A., F.A.A.H.P.M, is president and chief executive officer of the Institute for Religion and Health in Houston, Texas.
He seeks to develop innovative interdisciplinary models for providing compassionate and effective care for patients and families coping with incurable medical conditions. Until recently, he was the director of the Division of Palliative Medicine at the Methodist Hospital System in Houston and a professor of psychiatry at Weill-Cornell Medical College in New York City and an adjunct professor of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He is now a professor of Psychiatry at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, in Houston.
Over the past 5 years Dr. Duffy has become increasingly active in the emerging specialty of palliative medicine, and was a founding member and chair of the Connecticut Coalition to Improve End-of-Life Care. He has received several grants to support his research in end-of-life care, including grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In addition to his work with patients and families, Dr. Duffy has developed a professional renewal program for physicians and runs workshops for health care providers that are intended to help them recapture the meaning of their work. In 2001 he was awarded a Kornfield Foundation Fellowship to support his work in the area of physician wellness, and to support his study of the wisdom foundations of healing.
Dr. Duffy’s spiritual practice is Tibetan Buddhism. He has received instruction from Tibetan teachers and has been inspired by the spirit of the Tibetan refugees he has met and worked with in the refugee camps of India. Much of his perspective on compassion, mindfulness, and contemplative practices in medicine draws on his understanding of Tibetan Buddhism and its powerful insights into health, healing, and the limitations of allopathic medicine.
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