Katherine Hill, M.D., receives national recognition in Surgical Palliative Care

West Virginia University School of Medicine Assistant Professor in the Departments of Surgery and Medicine, Katherine Hill, M.D., received the inaugural Geoffrey Dunn M.D. Research Award in Surgical Palliative Care award presented by the Association for Academic Surgery Foundation.

The award provides investigators with the opportunity to pursue research interests, specifically germane to the field of surgical palliative care.

“I am quite honored to have been selected for this award in its first year, which focuses, like I do, on the unique crossroads of surgery and palliative medicine. The support and recognition of this award will allow me to continue to teach surgical faculty across the country in a new fundamentals of communication in surgery curriculum, which adapts core palliative communication skills for surgical residents. I am grateful for a multi-institutional group of research mentors, Drs. Gretchen Schwarze, Emily Rivet and Robert Arnold. I am thankful for the immense encouragement and support I receive here at WVU from leadership in both disciplines—especially Drs. Marsh, Wilson, Tabone, Lerfald and Navia,” Dr. Hill said.

Surgical palliative care reveres each patient’s values and honors their dignity by anticipating and managing all aspects of suffering – physical, psychological, social, and spiritual – while employing parallel patient-centered state of the art procedures, operations and critical care treatments.

The award was named after Dr. Geoffrey Dunn, who was considered the father of the surgical palliative care movement. For the past 25 years he’s dedicated his life and his practice to raising the awareness of surgeons to their responsibilities to holistically helping patients with serious illness.

To learn more, visit: aasfoundation.org/fund/geoffrey-dunn-md-research-award-in-surgical-palliative-care/.