Innovations in End-of-Life Care
an international journal of leaders in end-of-life care

Carlos Centeno Cortés, MD, PhD

Dr. Centeno is a full time consultant in Palliative Care in the Pain Therapy and Palliative Medicine Regional Center, Los Montalvos Hospital, in Salamanca, Spain. He first trained as a radiation oncologist at the University Hospital of Valladolid. In 1992, Dr. Centeno did doctoral work on the psychosocial needs of terminally ill patients and in 1999 published a revised version of his study as a monograph. In 1998, he was a Clinical Research Fellow in palliative care at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, where he worked on Dr. Eduardo Bruera's unit.

Dr. Centeno is a member of the Board of the Sociedad Española de Cuidados Palliativos (SECPAL), the Spanish Association of Palliative Care, and editor of its website (http://www.secpal.com). He is particularly interested in training professionals in palliative care and has served as academic coordinator of a two-year postgraduate course, 'Master en Medicina Palliativa,' at the University of Valladolid. Dr. Centeno has published widely, in both national and international journals, and was the author of the Directory of Palliative Care Services in Spain in 1997 and 1998.
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Charles von Gunten, MD, PhD, FACP

Dr. von Gunten is the Medical Director, Center for Palliative Studies, San Diego Hospice, a teaching affiliate of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. In addition, he serves as Vice-Chair of the American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and a member of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He currently serves as a consultant to the Ethics Standards Division of the American Medical Association and the National Board of Medical Examiners in the area of end-of-life care. He has been particularly interested in the integration of hospice and palliative care into academic medicine. He has published widely on the subject of hospice, palliative medicine, and pain and symptom management.

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 MD with honors from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado in 1988. He subsequently pursued internship and residency training in Internal Medicine, followed by specialty training in Hematology/Oncology at the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University. He joined the faculty and was an assistant professor of medicine at Northwestern University Medical School until 1999 where he directed programs in hospice and palliative care, education and research. He currently holds the academic rank of Associate Professor of Medicine, Northwestern University Medical School.
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