Research Newsletter

Cripe is IBJ Health Care Hero Finalist

As the founder of the CompleteLife Program which treats cancer patients and families at all levels, Dr. Larry Cripe was honored by the Indianapolis Business Journal annual awards program as a finalist in the physician category. The award honors a physician whose performance on the job is considered exemplary by patients and peers.

“What really separates him from others is his commitment to the total patient,” says Dr. Stephen D. Williams, IU Cancer Center director and School of Medicine associate dean of cancer research. “Larry singled-handedly recognized the importance of these services and initiated the program.”

Dr. Cripe established the CompleteLife Program in 2000 and served until 2006 as the program director. He was visionary in establishing a strong foundation for a unique program that provides services complementary to routine, conventional care for patients and families to improve the experience of cancer.

“Dr. Larry Cripe is one of the reasons that I am still alive, and not just alive, but alive and determined to do my part in the war against cancer,” says Vince Todd, Jr., a former patient of Dr. Cripe who was inspired through his own cancer experience to establish the Heroes Foundation, a non-profit organization whose primary beneficiary is the CompleteLife program.

CompleteLife Program services include art and music expression, nutritional consultation, social work, group support, psychological and psychiatric care, massage therapy and appearance consultation.

For more information about CompleteLife, visit http://cancer.iu.edu/completelife.