Dream Foundation, the only national dream-granting organization for terminally-ill adults, has announced that Dr. BJ Miller, a speaker and physician specializing in hospice and palliative care will serve as the organization’s Honorary Medical Chair.

Dr. Miller currently treats patients with terminal illnesses at the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center and recently served as executive director of San Francisco’s Zen Hospice Project.
 
“Dr. Miller has a very real and genuine empathy for those who have been given a diagnosis they cannot control and has dedicated his life to helping people prepare for death,” said Dream Foundation’s CEO Kisa Heyer.

“Dream Foundation joins Dr. Miller in the belief that dying is not about the disease but rather making the most out of the remaining days that life offers,” Heyer said.
 
As honorary medical chair, Dr. Miller will provide guidance and support to the Dream Foundation team about the palliative care of itsDreamers, and allow Dream Foundation to continue focusing on improving the quality of life for the patients and families.
 
“Death presents us all with the creative challenge of living the best life we can while we can, not just for ourselves but for each other,” Dr. Miller. said. “Dream Foundation proves this point and I’m thrilled and proud to be part of it.”

Dr. Miller sees patients in the Symptom Management Service of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of the first outpatient palliative care clinics in the U.S.

A native of Chicago, Dr. Miller studied art history as an undergraduate at Princeton University. He worked for art and disability-rights nonprofit organizations before earning a medical degree at UCSF.

He completed an internal medicine residency at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, where he was chief resident.

He did a fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at Harvard Medical School, working at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

In his work, Dr. Miller connects art, spirituality and medicine in end-of-life care. He is an assistant clinical professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine.

Dr. Miller’s TED Talk, What Really Matters at the End of Life, has garnered more than 5.5 million views to date and ranked among the Top 15 Most Viewed Talks of 2015.

For more information about Dream Foundation, visit DreamFoundation.org.

— Dani Cordaro for the Dream Foundation.