Palliative care specialist explains how end-of-life conversations help families and patients alike

In the late 1990s, Dawn M. Gross was headed for a prominent career in immunology. As a dual M.D./Ph.D. candidate at Tufts School of Medicine, she worked with scientists Allen Steere and Brigitte Huber and was the sole student researcher on a scientific breakthrough that identified the precise cause of an autoimmune reaction in the joints of patients with arthritis due to Lyme disease.