Thinking back to when you actually helped create this field to now, what have you seen as far as the evolution?

Well, to my unending and great satisfaction, palliative care is not only about brink of death care.

And that is a huge shift that occurred in the last 20 years.

When we started out, we were viewed as synonymous with hospice just without the payments.

Just without the resources that help patients and families at home.

And I would come onto a floor on Mount Sinai Hospital and I would hear people whispering, here comes Dr.

Death.

These are some of the things we have to reconcile, I think, when we're thinking about this.