Susan W. Tolle, M.D., the director of OHSU’s Center for Ethics in Health Care, has announced her decision to retire at the end of this year. OHSU will conduct a national search to find a director to carry on the critical work of the Center.
As Director, Dr. Tolle reports directly to the Provost and holds the Cornelia Hayes Stevens Endowed Chair. The Center was established in July of 1989 with Dr. Tolle serving as its inaugural director, following her completion of a fellowship at the University of Chicago where she learned skills in clinical ethics, partnered with colleagues to create the Center, and wrote grants that allowed OHSU to open the Center’s doors.
Under Dr. Tolle’s leadership, the Center is primarily supported by private philanthropy with a business model of building innovative programs and sustaining them through endowment income. The Center envisions a health care system that people experience as compassionate, comprehensible, just, and empowering, and its mission is to transform the health care of our communities as leaders in ethics education, professionalism, ethics research, policy, and compassionate communication.
The Center is internationally recognized for innovation in a range of programs. For example, the Portable Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) program was created in 1991 by Dr. Tolle and colleagues to assure that Oregonians with advanced illness and frailty have their wishes to have or to limit medical treatments honored across all settings of care. The program has been replicated across the country and beyond. Six years ago, the Center established a new medical school graduation requirement, with formal testing of each student’s serious illness and jargon-free language communication skills, implementing individual tutoring to boost students’ skills.
“I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with professional colleagues and community members to create, build and sustain the OHSU Center for Ethics in Health Care,” Dr. Tolle said. “I have seen many changes at OHSU since I was a medical student graduating in the class of 1977. I joined the faculty at OHSU on September 1, 1981 after completing four years of residency in internal medicine at University of California San Diego. It is an honor to have served as a faculty member in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics. I enjoyed providing continuity primary care to patients, and having relationships with patients and families that spanned more than three decades.”
Dr. Tolle’s commitment, passion and dedication to ethics, education, and communication will be sorely missed, and I have enjoyed working with her. I thank her for over 40 years of incredible work at OHSU and wish her all the best in retirement.
Sincerely,
Marie Chisholm-Burns, Pharm.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., FCCP, FASHP, FAST, FACHE
Executive Vice President and Provost
J.S. Reinschmidt Endowed Professor