Medical College of Wisconsin has 100% board pass rate on the HPM board exam for board eligible fellow graduates!

2018-2019
Academic clinician in geriatrics and palliative medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

2017-2018
Program Director of Palliative Care Program at Aurora-Based Community Hospital in Southeastern Wisconsin

2016-2017
Academic clinician in Palliative Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin

2015-2016
Academic clinician in Palliative Medicine and Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin

2014-2015
Academic clinician in neurology and palliative medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center
Academic clinician in pediatric palliative care and pediatric critical care at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin

2013-2014
Palliative Medicine Physician for Aurora Health Care, Milwaukee, WI

2012-2013
Hospice and Palliative Medicine Physician - Midwest Hospice and Palliative Care Center; Glenview, IL

2011-2012
Staff Physician Internal Medicine and Palliative Medicine, Director of the Transitional Care Unit and Director of the Palliative Care Outpatient Clinic, Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center, Milwaukee, WI

2010-2011
Associate Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin
Director of Palliative Care for Froedtert Community Health

Quality and Patient Safety Conference
This hour-long conference is held quarterly for members of our palliative care program. Attendees include physician faculty, midlevel faculty, psychologists, chaplains, nurses, and resident/medical student/fellow level rotators on the service. The fellow presents a case two times/year. The intent of the conference is to perform a thorough chart review of a sentinel palliative care case that analyzes the efficiencies and structure of the systems based practice in which palliative care is delivered throughout the health system.

Orientation
A dedicated series of one-on-one learning sessions are performed in the first two weeks of the fellowship to springboard fellowship learning. Topics include introduction to hospice and palliative medicine, prognostication, quality improvement, spiritual care and chaplaincy, developing appropriate boundaries in the care of the dying, roles of APPs in hospice and palliative medicine, and advance care planning and are led by various members of the inter-disciplinary team.

Fellow Lecture Series
Physician and other non-physician faculty lead weekly hour-long didactic lectures on key topics essential to the medical knowledge and board preparation of a palliative medicine fellow. Hematology/Oncology fellows, social work fellows, house-staff rotators, and psychology fellows are also invited to attend.

Quality Improvement Project
Throughout the year-long fellowship, the fellow will receive protected time to obtain instruction on quality improvement and systems-based change theory. This will come via a didactic lecture provided by Dr. Lamb via the Department of Medicine Fellows Lecture series, as well as via mentorship by Dr. Katherine Recka and Dr. Paul Stellmacher, designated physician leaders of QI project for our palliative care program The QI project is designed to provide protected time, training, guidance, and supervision necessary in developing a project that leads to improving processes of care delivery.

Psych-Social Rounds
All practitioners in palliative medicine need protected time and space to safely explore the emotional issues of providing care and presence for patients and families facing end of life issues. Psych-Social Rounds is designed to give this protected time and occurs monthly throughout the fellowship. During psych-social rounds, physician and non-physician faculty meet with our team psychologist Associate Professor Jo Weis PhD who leads the rounds in exploring such issues as establishing appropriate boundaries in a palliative care practice, how to identify signs and symptoms of clinical burn-out, and difficult emotional and social issues that arise in caring for ill patients.

Journal Club
The Palliative Care Journal Club meets twice monthly to critically review recent research relevant to palliative care clinical practice. Palliative Care faculty, fellows, as well as medical student and resident rotators are invited to present interesting articles. This includes an educational curriculum on how to best critically appraise the palliative care literature.

Schwartz Rounds
The Schwartz Center Rounds are a multidisciplinary forum where clinical caregivers can discuss confidential difficult emotional and social issues that arise in caring for patients. Offering a safe, open and relaxed place where you can share your concerns, experiences, thoughts, and feelings.

Bereavement Rounds
All members of the interdisciplinary team meet twice a month to pay remembrance to patients cared for our team who recently died. It is also a time to foster self-reflective practices on the lived experience of caring for patients.

Research Meeting
All members of the palliative care program are invited to this quarterly meeting to discuss ongoing research projects and identify best practices to make these projects as successful as possible. Outside speakers also are solicited to address a variety of relevant topics including disparities in end-of-life research, tips on designing poster presentations, tips on writing case reports, and patient-report outcomes research.

American Academy of Hospice & Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) Annual Assembly
Attendance at the AAHPM Annual Assembly is an important educational asset to palliative care fellows and expenses to attend are covered in full by personal development and palliative care funds.

PalliTALK
Fellows are provided funding and protected time to attend a 3-day long regional communication skills building conference at Madison WI. The curriculum is designed especially for Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellows.

Kern Institute
The Kern Institute was established in 2017 thanks to generosity of the Kern Family Foundation. It is a collaboration led by MCW with seven other medical schools committed to joining forces and building on each other’s strengths to drive innovation in medical education. In particular, the Kern Institute aims to evolve medical education from one that is strictly focused on competency to a medical educational model based on character, competence, and caring. Interested MCW HPM fellows will have access to the tremendous resources of the Kern Institute including training programs for medical educators.

The Medical College of Wisconsin now offers a 3-year combined fellowship allowing graduating fellows to become board eligible in Oncology and Hospice and Palliative Medicine. This fellowship track is structured so that the first year of the fellowship is a clinically focused year in Oncology. The second year is a clinically focused year in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. In the third year, fellows will spend a large amount of time on meaningful research and scholarship projects regarding quality of life issues in cancer patients along with clinical rotations in Oncology. Throughout the three years of the fellowship, fellows on this track will have weekly continuity clinics in Oncology and Palliative Medicine. Interested applicants should contact either program coordinator Julie Alexander at jualexander@mcw.edu or the fellowship program director Dr. Patrick Foy at pfoy@mcw.edu.

Medical trainees need professional development training as they care for patients and their families during serious illness and end of life. Supervision is a professional activity in which trainees develop understanding and awareness of influences such as beliefs and culturally embedded values that contribute to clinical practice. It involves observation, evaluation, feedback and facilitation of self-assessment. It provides opportunities to discuss difficult or emotionally charged encounters with patient and families, which promotes the development of a self-reflective and self-respectful approach to clinical practice. This study examines the effects of bi-weekly supervision with a licensed psychologist, Jo Weis, PhD, on the professional development of medical doctors working with the seriously ill through quantitative and qualitative methods.

• Froedtert Hospital
• Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center
• Children's Wisconsin
• Aurora VNA Zilber Family Hospice
• Horizon Hospice

Weekly
Interdisciplinary continuity clinic; home visits

July
Palliative Care Inpatient Service *

August
Palliative Care Inpatient Service *

September
Home Hospice

October
Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center

November
Residential Hospice

January
Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center

February
Elective (2 weeks) / Radiation Oncology (2 weeks)

March
Pediatric Palliative Care/Elective

April
Palliative Care Inpatient Service *

May
Pain Clinic (2 weeks) / VA Inpatient Hospice (2 weeks)

June
Palliative Care Inpatient Service *

* Includes palliative care consultation service and inpatient unit

We currently have funding for one fellowship position per year.

Application Process

The MCW Hospice and Palliative Care Fellowship Program is part of the NRMP Match program. Please contact Julie Alexander, jualexander@mcw.edu, if interested.

Application Information for ERAS

US Medical Graduates (Please provide the following in your ERAS Application)

• Common application form

USMLE Transcript (Steps 1, 2, and 3)

• Complex scores (DO)
• MSPE
• At least three letters of recommendation (one has to be from your current program director)
• Medical School Transcript
• Personal Statement
• CV

International Medical Graduates (Please provide the following in your ERAS Application)

• Common application form
• USMLE Transcript (Steps 1, 2, and 3)
• MSPE
• At least three letters of recommendation (one has to be from your current program director)
• Medical School Transcript
• ECFMG Status Report
• Personal Statement
• CV
• J-1 visa candidates (visa has to be sponsored by the ECFMG)
• Unfortunately, we do not accept H1b visas

Usual HPM Match Participation Timeline

ERAS Registration 
Spring

NRMP Online Program Information Update
May

ERAS Opens
July

Interviews at MCW
Usually held from August-early October

NRMP Match Opens
July

NRMP Rank List Opens
September

Rank List Deadline
November

Match Day
December

• MCWAH Overview
• Institutional Policies
• Benefits
• Licensure Process Guide
• VISA Information
• Resident Spouse/Significant Other Association
• Housing Information

The MCW Palliative Care program has developed and hosted the Great Lakes Regional CME Palliative Care Conference. It is now a two-day conference with over 200 attendees. It utilizes half-day workshops, networking opportunities, and didactic presentations from regional and national leaders in the field to help generalist and palliative care clinicians explore challenging topics in palliative care head on. It is also a wonderful event that brings together educators and leaders in the field. MCW Palliative Care fellows speak at this conference, most commonly as a co-presenter with another MCW faculty member. It gives our fellows great experience in giving formal presentations on a regional level.

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