Ira Byock

American physician and author

Byock's early career focused on emergency medicine and rural practice in parallel with an interest in hospice care, and then founded the Missoula Demonstration Project and became director for the Robert Wood Johnson Promoting Excellence in End of Life Care initiative. His books include Dying Well (1997), The Four Things That Matter Most (2004), and The Best Care Possible (2012).

Byock earned a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1973, and Doctor of Medicine from the University of Colorado School of Medicine Denver in 1978. He completed an internship and residency in family practice medicine in University of California–San Francisco in Fresno, California (1978–81). He holds certifications from the American Board of Family Practice (since 1981), the American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (since 1996), and the American Board of Emergency Medicine (1989–1998). He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Medicine (since 1986) and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

While Byock's early career focus was on rural family practice and emergency medicine, he developed an interest in the then nascent hospice movement. While still an intern in 1978–79, Byock teamed with a social work intern to create the Esperanza Care Cooperative, a “fledgling hospice program” for Valley Medical Center in California's Central Valley. While among the best rated instruments in terms of validity, including cross cultural, the Missoula VITAS Quality of Life Index is considered better in clinical applications, as a psychometric as well as therapeutic tool, than in research. In 1996, Byock was asked to lead the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's national program in Promoting Excellence in End of Life Care, intended to expand access to hospice and palliative care to regions and populations not easily served under the Medicare Hospice Benefit. Under Byock's leadership with deputy director, Jeanne Shields Twohig, the program directed up to $15 million over 10 years to 26 demonstration projects to develop and test models for palliative care within a variety of medical specialties, care settings, and underserved populations. Eight peer workgroups of healthcare leaders specifically focused on specific diseases or issues, while nine projects addressed knowledge and practice gaps—all under an overarching communications strategy, with significant results. Also in 1996, with separate funding from another program area of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Byock co founded (with Barbara Spring, PhD) and served as principal investigator for the Missoula Demonstration Project, a community organization focused on studying the experiences of illness, dying, caregiving, and grieving within the context of community, and engaging the community of Missoula, Montana in improving care and support for seriously ill people and their families. During the 1990s, Byock helped to launch and assumed leadership roles in the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine During this period, Byock had a faculty appointment at the University of Montana, Practical Ethics Center, as research professor of philosophy. In late 2003, Byock moved to New Hampshire as director of palliative medicine for Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and associate director for patient and family centered care at the affiliated Norris Cotton Cancer Center. He remains an active emeritus professor of medicine and of community health and family medicine at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine.

Byock has appeared as a featured guest on national television and radio programs, including NPR's Talk of the Nation, All Things Considered, Fresh Air, American Public Media's On Being, CBS's 60 Minutes, ABC News Nightline, and PBS NewsHour.

Byock is married to Yvonne Corbeil who is a nurse and currently serves as Senior Advisor for the Institute for Human Caring, Providence St. Joseph Health and Co Director, Clinical Transformation Specialists.