TRAINING THE NEXT GENERATION: "Discovering Hospice and Palliative Care"

Episode #2
Uploaded: June 22, 2010
Running time: 06:38

HILL: From the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland: Hello, and welcome to this episode in the "Training the Next Generation" Podcast Series which explores how we're cultivating clinical and translational researchers who examine today's problems and find tomorrow's cures.

I'm Virginia Hill, and today, I'm going to speak with Dr. Dan Handel, who is the Fellowship Director of the NIH-Capital Hospice Program in Palliative and Hospice Medicine. Dr. Handel has served as the Program Director for this ACGME-accredited fellowship since its inception in 2004. After receiving his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland in 1978, Dr. Handel completed his Family Practice residency at the University of Minnesota in 1981. Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Handel served as the founding Medical Director of the Palliative Care Service at a large community hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. Hello Dr. Handel, thank you for joining us today.

HANDEL: It's a pleasure to be here.

HILL: Dr. Handel, how did you decide to pursue a career in hospice and palliative medicine?

HANDEL: I love being a family physician. That has always been something that has been part of my identity. I began to see patients referred to me from my partners who had pain issues. And I developed a strong interest in that, received some additional training, and over the years, found my way into first volunteering and then actually being employed in hospice work. And I fell in love.

HILL: Why did you choose to come to NIH?

HANDEL: It was an easy decision because the NIH is such a special place. It's a place that is filled with science, but also the Clinical Center here is filled with humanism and caring in a cutting edge environment in medicine

HILL: So, what has been your most satisfying moment as a training director?

HANDEL: It's often times as our fellows come through our program, and then I get to watch them launching into careers. I've seen our fellows come out of here and start a palliative care service in hospitals in parts of the country where they didn't have that service before. Some of our fellows are now teaching, so they are kind of bringing this to another generation of physicians coming up who are founding this new specialty of palliative medicine and hospice. Hospice and palliative medicine is a baby; it's a new field. And I think our graduates, among others, are the people who are going to be the future of this.

HILL: How would you describe your program, and what do you think is unique about it?

HANDEL: In our program, we're currently expanding from one fellow per year to four fellows per year at the start of this next year. And as such, our fellows will spend significant amounts of time here at the National Institutes of Health where they will be dealing with advanced illness patients, cancer, and many other diagnoses. But they will also spend an equal amount of time at a large hospice program in our area that commonly carries a census of 900 patients per day. It's multi-state; it's across Virginia, DC and Maryland. But I think one thing that several of our graduates say was particularly satisfying was that there was a great variety of approaches that they were exposed to. And not that they were experts at every one of those approaches when they finished the program, but they had a sincere appreciation for what they might want to build as they move forward in their own careers.

HILL: So, what is the best advice that you would give to a prospective applicant to your program?

HANDEL: Understand your own wishes as to whether you want to be a primary community physician, or if you thought you were headed more for an academic track where you're going to be training others, or you might be interested more in research, or you might be interested in working in tertiary care or academic centers. We have the ability to address the needs of someone who is headed for a primary community practice. We also are a great match for someone who has real academic interests.

HILL: What do you think are the qualities that your current residents and fellows share?

HANDEL: I think they share a tremendous enthusiasm. I see a vibrancy in them as they come into our program and as much or more as they leave our program and they're starting their career.

HILL: Well, thank you again for joining us Dr. Handel and sharing with us more information about this unique program in Hospice and Palliative Care. And thank YOU for listening to this episode of "Training the Next Generation." For more information on opportunities supported by the Clinical Center's Office of Clinical Research Training and Medical Education, please visit www.cc.nih.gov/training. Until next time, we look forward to working with YOU to make tomorrow's cures a reality.

I'm Virginia Hill from the Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.