Biography

Dr. Charles F. von Gunten is widely known as a pioneer in the new specialty of hospice and palliative medicine. He is the Chairman, Test Committee, Hospice & Palliative Medicine, American Board of Medical Specialties. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Palliative Medicine. He is Co-Principal for the Education for Physicians on End-of-life Care (EPEC) Project and its revision for oncology, EPEC-O. He received a life-time achievement award from the American Academy for Hospice and Palliative Medicine in 2011 when he was only 54 years old. In the same year he was named a ‘top doctor’ in US News and World Report. He is an expert for the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) on developing hospital-based palliative care programs. He has been particularly interested in the integration of hospice and palliative care into academic medicine. He has published and spoken widely on the subjects of hospice, palliative medicine, and pain and symptom control. Dr. von Gunten received the Bachelor of Arts Degree with honors from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island in 1978. He then earned a PhD in Biochemistry and the MD degree with honors from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado in 1988. He subsequently pursued residency training in Internal Medicine, followed by subspecialty training in Hematology/Oncology at the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University in Chicago. After joining Northwestern’s faculty, he directed programs in hospice and palliative care, education, and research. In 1999 he was recruited to San Diego where he led the development of education and research programs in the Institute for Palliative Medicine at San Diego Hospice as Provost until 2012. He currently holds the academic rank of Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Diego. He is a member of the NIH-designated Moores Comprehensive Cancer Center.

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