Dr. Holly Prigerson speaks with Clinical Center chaplain Fr. Henry Heffernan prior to her talk on June 1.

As the campus lecture season wound down for the summer, it was hard to pass up the chance to hear about “Dying Better: Lessons from the Coping with Cancer Study,” given on June 1 by Dr. Holly Prigerson, director of the Center for Psycho-Oncology and Palliative Care Research, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

After all, everyone checks out, and some of us may have to walk a tough road before we do. Thus it was good to be among attendees at the NIH end-of-life palliative care special interest group’s last meeting of the season. Mostly women, the audience was informed, seasoned and simpatico. You got to thinking, if I got the bad news, these are the kinds of people I’d want in my corner. Most of the Clinical Center’s spiritual ministry department was there, too.

Dr. Judith Bradford

Rainbow-colored banners were seen flying throughout Washington, D.C., in June for Capital Pride, an annual event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities in D.C. and nationwide. In commemoration of LGBT pride month, NIH focused on health issues in that community as part of its Health Disparities Seminar Series.

Dr. John Ruffin, director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, welcomed Dr. Judith Bradford to address the health care challenges faced by the LGBT community. Today, around 4 million individuals identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.