A note from the Program Director

In 2004, Dr.s Ann Allegre and Christian Sinclair of Kansas City Hospice and Palliative Care and I had a meeting to discuss our shared dream of developing a Palliative Medicine fellowship training program.  Out of that shared vision emerged a clinical training experience that we believe is a solidly balanced, engaging, and meaningful year of growth for our fellows.  Our year is broken into thirteen 4 week blocks, with half of the experience emanating from the large, community based hospice setting and with half of the experience emanating from the tertiary academic medical center setting.  Fellows take charge of patients all along the continuum of care, from the ICU setting to the living room, and from upstream in illness to the active dying process.

In 2008, the KU-KCHPC Palliative care fellowship was one of the first 32 programs to receive accreditation from the ACGME. We were especially proud to receive commendation with our certification.  We are currently mid-cycle and will have our first recertification visit in January of 2012.

Our program currently accepts 2 fellows per year, with generous funding for one position from Kansas City Hospice and for one position from the University of Kansas Hospital.  From 2005 to present we have trained a total of 7 fellows, 4 of whom were eligible in 2008 to take and successfully pass the first ABMS subspecialty certification examination in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. The remainder of our past and current fellows are eligible for the 2010 exam and we are confident will perform equally well.

Looking at ERAS and the AAHPM website, I am impressed by the number of excellent programs across the United States.  We are proud to be one of them and hope that you agree.  

Congratulations for considering a career in an amazing, dramatically evolving field and best of luck as you find the program that is the best fit for you.

Sincerely,


Karin Porter-Williamson MD