Subspecialty Careers: Hospice and Palliative Medicine
The Discipline
Palliative medicine aims to relieve symptoms and pain a patient suffers due to a serious illness. Goals of palliative care include reducing suffering, improving the quality of life for a patient, and supporting the patient and family throughout the treatment process.
Hospice care is provided for patients facing a terminal diagnosis who no longer wish to undergo curative treatment. Goals of hospice care include relieving symptoms and supporting patients in the end-of-life stages.
Training
Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship training requires an additional year of accredited training beyond general internal medicine residency in a Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship training program.
Training Positions
For the 2010-2011 academic year, there were 105 ACGME-accredited training programs in Hospice and Palliative Medicine with 290 active positions. Thirty-two percent of the trainees are female and 64% are U.S. medical graduates.
Certification
The American Board of Medical Specialties approved the creation of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (HPM) as a sub-specialty of ten participating boards in September 2006. The American Board of Internal Medicine is one of these boards. The first certification exam was held in October 2008, and is offered every other year.
Major Professional Societies
American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine
4700 W. Lake Ave.
Glenview, IL 60025
Phone: 847-375-4712
Fax: 847-375-6475
http://www.aahpm.org/
Major Publications
Match Day 2012: An Exciting Experience
Go behind the scenes at Match Day 2012 at The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and hear Dr. Katrina Armstrong, Chief of the Internal Medicine Division at Penn Medicine describe being part of the Match Day experience.
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