PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - J. Hamilton
TI  - Dr. Balfour Mount and the cruel irony of our care for the dying
DP  - 1995 Aug 01
TA  - Canadian Medical Association Journal
PG  - 334--336
VI  - 153
IP  - 3
4099  - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/153/3/334.short
4100  - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/153/3/334.full
SO  - CMAJ1995 Aug 01; 153
AB  - Dr. Balfour Mount of Montreal thinks that the health care system, because of its fixation on disease processes, may have forgotten that it also has a mandate to alleviate suffering. "We need to recapture that vision," says Mount, who describes palliative medicine as a "rich combination" of clinical pharmacology, rehabilitation medicine and internal medicine. Mount says there is a cruel irony in our care of the dying. "Although these are the sickest people in our health care system, when medical technology doesn't know what to do, the quality and quantity of care falls away. How can we justify that?"