We've all heard that laughter is the best medicine, and the goal of a week-long symposium in Toronto is to show how a healthy dose of humour can heal.

Some 1,000 people are expected to attend the workshops and performances to learn how therapeutic clowns bring smiles to sad faces and cheer those who are ill.

One of those expected to talk is "Dr. Haven't a Clue," otherwise known as Prof. Bernie Warren. Warren has taught clowning to University of Windsor students and professional artists for over 30 years. In 2001, he created Fools For Health, which runs clown doctor programs in hospitals and health care facilities throughout Southwestern Ontario.

The benefits of therapeutic clowns are overwhelming, Warren says. Studies have shown that patients who get regular visits from a clown while they're in hospital often find they can reduce their use of anti-anxiety and pain medication.

Patients are also more likely to adhere to their recommended therapies, and wards where clowns are regularly used have lower rates of staff absenteeism.

What's more, therapeutic clowns ease patients into a new perspective on the care they're receiving.

"This is a very important point. When therapeutic clowns are on the wards, the families perceive that they are getting better health care," Warren told CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday.

Dr. Peter Spitzer, a medical doctor from Australia and the co-founder of The Humour Foundation, is also in Toronto for the conference. He says that when he dons his clown persona of Dr. Fruit Loop, he's providing completely different care than he does as an MD.

"When doctors and nurses do their ward rounds, they're looking for what's wrong; that's their job. What we do is clown rounds and we look at what's right. Together, we work as a partnership, to help that person on their journey," Spitzer said.

When many people think of clowns working in hospitals, they think of the movie character Patch Adams bringing smiles to children's faces, but Warren notes that it's not just kids who can benefit from humour.

"This work is done across the lifespan; it's not just children. It's from cradle to grave," he said.

"We work with palliative care patients, people getting end-of-life care. We work with people who have just had surgery. We work with people who are in rehab, trying to get better, patients who've had heart attacks, strokes," he explained.

Warren says acceptance of clown doctors has grown tremendously in the last decade, so that hospitals all over the country now have programs. For example, the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto started a therapeutic clown program in 1993 and now has seven clowns working in different wards.

There are also therapeutic clown training programs that teach prospective clowns the unique skills they'll need to engage patients and speed healing.

Spitzer notes that not all good performers make good clown doctors, because the job requires unique improvisational skills.

"The thing about being a performer is you can read the situation and we use our skills to adapt to what's going on. We use a lot of improvisation. We don't have set shticks. We don't know what's going to happen when we turn the corner," he says.

The idea is allow patients and their families to better cope with their hospitalization and treatment, he says.

"We do ‘open' heart surgery, we prescribe mirth, we dispense laughter, and we try to leave all our patients in stitches."