#020 - Join host Dr. Red Hoffman as she interviews Dr. Preeti John, a surgeon triple board-certified in general surgery, surgical critical care and hospice and palliative medicine.  Preeti currently practices at the VA Maryland Healthcare System in Baltimore and is the Facility LSTDI (Life Sustaining Treatment Decisions Initiative) Director, coordinating all aspects of this Veterans Health Administration's quality improvement initiative in the in-patient and out-patient settings and intensive care units.  Preeti is also a healthcare ethics consultant and serves on the national Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) Ethics Committee. She is editor of a widely acclaimed book titled ‘Being a Woman Surgeon – 60 Women Share Their Stories’ and is on the editorial board of the American Medical Women’s Association’s ‘Literary AMWA’ publication.  In this episode we review some of the details of LSTDI and the needs of veterans at the end of life.  We also discuss hospital ethics and how to become a healthcare ethics consultant.  Lastly, we talk about Preeti's first book about women surgeons and her upcoming book about pain management.

Read more about the VA Life-Sustaining Treatment Decisions Initiative here.

Read more about Being A Woman Surgeon:  Sixty Women Share Their Stories here.

Learn more about the Healthcare Ethics Consultants-Certified Program here.

To learn more about the surgical palliative care community, visit us on twitter @surgpallcare