Eric L. Krakauer, MD, PhD, is Director of the Program in Global Palliative Care and Associate Professor of Medicine and of Global Health & Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston; an Attending Physician in the Division of Palliative Care & Geriatric Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital; and Honorary Chair of the Department of Ethics, Social Medicine & Palliative Care at the University of Medicine & Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Dr. Krakauer and his team collaborate with WHO and with ministries of health, hospitals, and medical schools in low- and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, to help integrate palliative care into health care services and education. While serving on the Lancet Commission on Palliative Care and as Medical Officer for Palliative Care at WHO Headquarters, he led development of a method for estimating palliative care need in every country in the world, of an Essential Package of Palliative Care to respond to this need, and of three WHO manuals on integrating palliative care into health care systems. He also led WHO-funded projects to adapt the Essential Package of Palliative Care for people with MDR TB and for women with cervical cancer. For his work in Vietnam, he has been honored with the Medal of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City and with the “For the Health of the People” Medal, Vietnam’s highest award for medicine and public health. He is the principal author of the open access publication Clinical Manual of Palliative Care for Any Setting: Toward Universal Contextually-Adapted Access: https://academic.oup.com/book/61570
