Dr. Christopher Kerr -Validating Patients Dreams & Visions at End of Life

Dr. Christopher Kerr will share his  published research that describes and validates patient’s dreams and visions at  the end of life. Dr. Kerr will explore how these near universal experiences  often provide comfort and meaning as well as insight into the life led and death  anticipated. He will also review research that explores the potential for end of  life experiences to provide opportunity for post-traumatic growth, and discuss  the impact of these experiences on the bereaved. The presentation includes  videos of patients and families describing the meaningfulness of these powerful  end of life experiences.

Dr. Kerr  Christopher Kerr MD PhD is the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Executive Officer  for Hospice & Palliative Care Buffalo.  Born and raised in Toronto, Canada,  Dr. Kerr earned his MD and PhD in Neurobiology.  His background in research has  evolved from bench science towards the human experience of illness as witnessed  from the bedside, specifically patient’s dreams and visions at the end of life.  Although medically ignored, these near universal experiences often provide great  comfort and meaning. To date, the research team at Hospice Buffalo has published  multiple studies on this topic and documented over 1,500 end-of-life events,  many of which are videotaped. This work was the subject of his TEDx Buffalo  Talk which has been viewed over  2.7 million times. It has been the subject of reports on The BBC, in The New York  Times, The Atlantic  Monthly, Scientific  American Mind, Huffington  Post, The Washington Post, and  Psychology  Today. It will also be  featured in an upcoming Netflix production and a documentary film to be released  in 2020.  It has also gathered international attention.

Dr. Kerr’s work was  published in his book  Death  is but a Dream ,  Penguin Random House, released in February  2020 and now published in 10 languages.