FounderVitalTalk
Anthony (Tony) Back is Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle and Co-Founder of VitalTalk, a nonprofit devoted to improving physician communication with people living with a serious illness. Dr. Back graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Medical School, and had postgraduate training at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. His research in communication between patients and clinicians has been funded by the National Cancer Institute, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The John A. Hartford Foundation and many others. He was the first American Cancer Society Pathfinder in Palliative Care recipient, and the Inaugural Walther Cancer Foundation Supportive and Palliative Care award for the American Society of Clinical Oncology. In 2017, he was named a Visionary in Palliative Care by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. The COVID-Ready Communication Playbook he authored in March 2020 (https://www.vitaltalk.org/) went viral, was covered in the New York Times and numerous medical journals, and was translated by volunteer physicians into 25 languages.