Keynote Speaker: Dr. Deborah Cook
Intensive Care Consultant, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton
Topic: “Compassionate End-of-Life Care: Its Everyone’s Business”
Host: Anisa Nazir
Rotary Toronto Meeting Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023
Dinner at The National Club, 303 Bay Street, Toronto
Views and Opinions Expressed Disclaimer: The views and opinions are those expressed by the Speaker and do not necessarily reflect the official views or opinions, policy or position of The Rotary Club of Toronto or its Members.
Biography
Dr. Cook is a Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the Departments of Medicine, and Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster University. As Academic Chair of Critical Care Medicine at McMaster, she also holds a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Intensive Care Medicine.
As a frontline critical care consultant at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, Dr. Cook’s studies have helped to inform practice and guidelines, reducing the toll of death and disability in Intensive Care Units globally. Dr. Cook has published over 900 peer-review articles based on advanced life support, preventing complications of critical illness, research ethics and end-of-life care.
Studying the challenging ethical frontier of death while dependent on technology, Dr. Cook developed the inspiring 3 Wishes Project, adopted in many hospitals around the world to elicit and implement personal wishes of dying patients to honour their dignity and celebrate their lives.
As a founding member and Chair of the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group, the Deborah J. Cook Mentorship Award was created in recognition of her mentorship to students, trainees and faculty focused on critical illness. As Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Dr. Cook has received numerous national and international honours for her scientific leadership, including CIHR’s Gold Leaf Award for Impact, and Lifetime Achievement awards from the Society of Critical Care Medicine and American Thoracic Society. For her enduring scientific contributions to the improvement of intensive care worldwide, Dr. Cook was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2015 and received a Gairdner Wightman Award in 2022.