John Finn, MD
Chief Medical Director
Maggie Allesee Center for Quality of Life

John W. Finn, MD, noted national leader in the hospice and palliative care movement, has dedicated his entire career to caring for terminally ill patients. He has been associated with Hospice of Michigan and its forerunner, Hospice of Southeastern Michigan, since 1986. In addition to his clinical practice, he is a distinguished Fellow and Immediate Past President of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

As Chief Medical Director of the Maggie Allesee Center for Quality of Life, Dr. Finn is responsible for developing a national reputation for the Center as a premier center for palliative care research, education and training, public awareness and public policy through consumer outreach activities for the community, professionals and legislative leaders.

Dr. Finn's professional practice of promoting competent and compassionate care of the terminally ill supports his philosophy that "the dying deserve medicine's best." A respected speaker within the medical community and among the general public, he constantly advocates hospice care as "simply the extension of best medical practices."

His medical background and education is extensive. He completed his undergraduate and medical degrees at Wayne State University. He fulfilled an internship and residency in internal medicine at Sinai Hospital of Detroit, a fellowship in medical oncology at Henry Ford Hospital and a fellowship in palliative medicine in Great Britain. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and is a clinical associate professor at Wayne State University School of Medicine.

As an educator and degreed trainer of EPEC (Education for Physicians in End-of-Life Care), Dr. Finn teaches the hospice philosophy and how to diagnose terminal illness and communicate the news to the patient's family, while still preserving hope.

In the spring of 2002, he was invited by the National Institute of Health to teach palliative medicine to medical students, physicians and nurses in Chendu, China. Dr. Finn is a proponent of the concepts that "quality hospice needs to be translated" and that "death is universal and good care at the end of one's life is important for all cultures and religions."

A founding member of the Academy of Hospice Physicians, Dr. Finn holds memberships in numerous organizations, including the American College of Physician Executives and the Michigan State Medical Society. As a policy maker and industry leader, his involvement as a member of the National Institute of Health Committee for Pain and Palliative Care has helped shape standards of care for the terminally ill.

Through his active research in conjunction with the American Society for Clinical Oncology and numerous presentations to this medical community, Dr. Finn is a public advocate for new medical legislation and benefit packages, so all people receive the end-of-life care they need and deserve. Dr. Finn also lends his expertise to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Pursuing Excellence at the End of Life as a member of its national think tank.