Dr Gerri Frager
Dr. Gerri Frager is a Canadian pediatrician and has been the Medical Director of the Pediatric Palliative Care Service at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia for the past 16 years. Gerri is a Professor at Dalhousie University and the Director of the Medical Humanities-HEALS program at Dalhousie, which seeks to enhance Healing & Learning through the Arts & Life-Skills.
Gerri worked as a nurse for 9 years before pursuing her medical degree at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. Following a year of Internal Medicine in Montreal and her Pediatric Residency in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Gerri worked as a consultant pediatrician in Newfoundland, Canada including doing fly-in clinics to coastal out-ports.
Gerri explored various models of palliative care delivery through a year-long traveling fellowship covering the US, the UK, and Canada; then followed with a 21/4 year fellowship with the Pain Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York city, USA. Dr. Frager is a Faculty Scholar Alumnus with the Open Society Institute's Project Death in America, which is committed to the goal of improving care at the end-of-life.
Gerri is the author of a web-based resource and numerous publications relating to her 2 primary focuses: Pediatric Palliative Care & integration of the arts and humanities into clinical care, education, and research. Her particular areas of interest include communication and the use of novel arts-based modalities to enhance communication. Her other focus relates to physician wellness and self-care. She has been gratified by the tremendous response to a play she commissioned, Ed's Story: The Dragon Chronicles, which has been incorporated as innovative teaching tool in Dalhousie University's Medical School and further afield. Dr. Frager enjoys presenting at regional, national and international conferences.
Ed's Story: The Dragon Chronicles
A verbatim play based on the clinical care of Ed, a 16 year-old with advanced cancer, in whose care Gerri shared. Ed kept a journal in his last 4 months of life. Through a follow-up research study, Ed’s words were combined with interviews with his friends, family and carers to create a 2010 Atlantic Fringe Festival Hit, with sold-out performances throughout its run.