Laura Hawryluck
LAURA HAWRYLUCK received her MD in 1992 from the University of Western Ontario where she also served her Internal Medicine residency. She completed a Fellowship in Critical Care at the University of Manitoba in 1997 and received her MSc in Bioethics in 1999 from the Joint Centre for Bioethics and the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto. From 1999-2001 she was Assistant Professor of Critical Care/Internal Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. In March 2000 she was appointed Physician Leader of the national Ian Anderson Continuing Education Program in End-of-Life Care at the University of Toronto and is currently Associate Professor of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Toronto. In 2002, she was awarded the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal for contributions to Canada in recognition of her work in creating and running the Anderson Program.
She is currently Physician Lead, on the Ethical Issues of Access component of the Critical Care Strategy Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. She recently completed a very successful one year term as Physician Lead for the Critical Care Strategy's Performance Improvement Initiative in End of Life Decision-Making. With CRI, she is currently expanding some of the educational programs she began with this initiative and is working with CRI to develop an end of life interprofessional communication skills, ethical and legal educational two-day workshop for critical care providers across Ontario.
Dr Hawryluck has been a member of the Ontario Pandemic Flu A/D/T Committee whose goal is to ensure critical care professionals will be prepared for a pandemic flu. She teaches extensively in communication skills, ethics and law at the undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education levels at the University and internationally. In the past, she has been co-Leader of the national EFPPEC (Educating Future Physicians in Palliative and End-of-Life Care) medical school curriculum initiative with special responsibilities for postgraduate educational programs. Dr. Hawryluck has developed innovative education programs for professionals and members of the public working with the Trillium Gift of Life Network and American College of Surgery among many others.
Dr. Hawryluck has published and been an invited speaker on a wide variety of ethical topics related to healthcare. Her current research seeks to improve the communication skills, ethical and legal knowledge of professionals, and the educational needs of the general public regarding advance care planning. Dr. Hawryluck is a former Council member of the Medico-Legal Society of Toronto and sits on its Outreach Committee whose goal is to promote medical and legal education among the professions. She has been a member of the CIHR Humanities, Ethics and Law research grant peer review Committee.