2022-2023 Thomas Clyde, MD
Where you have worked since fellowship and any positions you have held?
AtlantiCare in Egg Harbor Township, NJ
What did you most enjoy about fellowship?
I really enjoyed working with the FCCC team. It is a super cohesive team, and I felt like part of the team shortly after starting fellowship. I enjoyed the amount of I had. I had a great deal of independence but always felt like I had appropriate help for difficult cases.
What important lesson(s) did you take away and how did this training help you in your current role?
I learned a lot about effective communication, and I was really impressed with the Vital Talks course. I also learned how to use and be comfortable with starting people on methadone. As I have talked with my friends in other fellowships, I have learned the FCCC prepared me better to use methadone than other places may have.
What surprised you about the fellowship year?
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the home hospice rotation. I really learned a lot about how people with serious illness live as I went around to their homes.
2021-2022 Susan Samuel, MD
Where you have worked since fellowship and any positions you have held?
Cooper University Health System in both inpatient and outpatient settings. My outpatient clinic is focused on a mix of general and cancer rehabilitation.
What did you most enjoy about fellowship?
The people. They created an environment where it is ok to make mistakes, learn, question and grow as a provider and individual. They continue to be my mentors and support me long after I have graduated.
What important lesson(s) did you take away and how did this training help you in your current role?
I developed a strong clinical foundation in palliative medicine that is helping me develop my practice in cancer rehabilitation. There are various ways to approach a situation and this fellowship provided me with a different perspective. I also learned (am learning) to be ok with the uncertainty of medicine and that there are a lot of things I cannot change. However, there is so much value in just being with your patients/colleagues and sitting with them during that time which I learned from fellowship.
What surprised you about the fellowship year?
How much the people would impact my education and continue to be a part of my life as a transition to the next steps.
2020-2021 Himanshu Malhotra, DO
Where you have worked since fellowship and any positions you have held?
Following fellowship, I worked at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor Maine, doing both inpatient and outpatient for 1.5 years. I just started a new role as of March 2023 at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center expanding and developing the outpatient palliative care program.
What did you most enjoy about fellowship?
It is the people at Temple and Fox Chase that made my fellowship year enjoyable. The continuity clinic was another great aspect that I extremely appreciated.
What important lesson(s) did you take away and how did this training help you in your current role?
Relationships along the continuum of care make an incredible difference to our patients and the population we care for. Another lesson was the power of words and the weight it carries as we communicate with our patients and their families. In medicine, we have many responsibilities to our patients and other care teams and sometimes we get lost in those details while missing the big picture. Fellowship allowed me to have the privilege to "meet patients where they are at", allowing me to hold their pain and distress as we reflected together.
What surprised you about the fellowship year?
As I reflect back on my fellowship year one thing that I found myself constantly surprised by was the power of hope and how hope can be framed not just, in whether someone will have a good or bad outcome in the context of their serious illness. It can be hope for closure in someone's journey or an achievement.
2019-2020 Alison Rhoades, MD
Where you have worked since fellowship and any positions you have held?
Since fellowship, I have been working for Main Line Health as a palliative care physician at Lankenau Hospital.
What did you most enjoy about fellowship?
I most enjoyed the personalized nature of the fellowship at FCCC. As the only fellow, we were able to guide my year to be exactly what I needed as an adult learner coming in with my own experiences.
What important lesson(s) did you take away and how did this training help you in your current role?
Training at FCCC taught me many of the nuances of treating cancer patients specifically and how people's values and goals change as their disease progresses. I was also able to learn to manage cancer pain expertly and work in conjunction with oncologists to improve patients' quality of life.
What surprised you about the fellowship year?
I was surprised at how little I knew and how much more there was to learn about management of serious illness care and even having conversations about serious illness.