Featured Plenary Sessions
During the 2019 plenary sessions, all attendees gathered together for a shared learning experience designed to stimulate new thinking and conversation.
Shantanu Agrawal
Getting to Results that Matter: Addressing Quality in Hospice and Palliative Care
Thursday, March 14 from 8:15–10 am
Shantanu Agrawal is the President and CEO of the National Quality Forum (NQF). A board-certified emergency medicine physician who has worked in both academic and community settings, Dr. Agrawal is the former deputy administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and director of one of its largest centers, the Center for Program Integrity (CPI).
Carolyn Jones
Defining Hope: What Makes Life Worth Living
Friday, March 15 from 8:15–10 am
In this session, Defining Hope: What Makes Life Worth Living, filmmaker and ethnographer Carolyn Jones an outsider-looking-in perspective, describing her journey into the world of healthcare as a journalist, a patient, and a family member. Having collected countless stories for her book and documentary film projects, Jones exposes some of the public's biggest misconceptions about hospice and palliative care, and examines what it's like to be on the receiving end of that care.
Jones shared clips from Defining Hope, her latest film, which follows patients with life-threatening illness as they make choices about how they want to live, how much medical technology they can accept, what they hope for and how that hope evolves when life is threatened. It is about optimism and reminds us that we have choices in how we die. Her goal is to jumpstart critical conversations and help people define what truly makes life worth living.
The State of the Science: Update in Hospice and Palliative Care - 15th Anniversary!
Saturday, March 16 from 8:15–10 am
The State of the Science returns on Saturday morning celebrating its 15th Anniversary! This is where palliative care and hospice research are applied to cases in a fun and engaging session. Heather Coats, PhD APRN-BC and Laura Gelfman, MD MPH take the stage to celebrate and look back this Annual Assembly staple and discuss the future of research education and what's coming in the advancement of palliative care and hospice research.
2020 Plenary Speakers
We are excited to welcome these speakers joining the plenary stage at the 2020 Annual Assembly of Hospice and Palliative Care.
Susan Cain
Thursday, March 19 from 8:15-10am
Susan Cain is the Chief Revolutionary of Quiet Revolution and the author of the bestsellers Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverts, and Quiet: The Power of Introverts in A World That Can’t Stop Talking, which is in its seventh year on the New York Times best seller list. Her writing has appeared in the The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. Her record-smashing TED talk has been viewed over 20 million times and was named by Bill Gates one of his all-time favorite talks.
Jeremie Saunders
Friday, March 20 from 8:15-10am
Jeremie is an award winning actor, producer and host of popular original Canadian media, including film, television and podcasts. He lives with a genetic lung disease called Cystic Fibrosis. In the culmination of Jeremie's affinity for laughter and education, Sickboy Podcast was founded, exploring conversations with a wide range of guests, talking and laughing about the experiences of living with terminal or chronic illness. Sickboy Podcast aims to tear down the walls of stigma and find levity in an otherwise dark situation.
The State of the Science: Update in Hospice and Palliative Care
Saturday, March 21 from 8:15-10am
The State of the Science returns on Saturday to look at the latest research in hospice and palliative care over the past year and discuss the future of research education and what's coming in the advancement of palliative care and hospice research. The State of the Science plenary session is a part of a larger research conference happening March 20-22, 2019 in San Diego. Learn more about this research conference entitled The State of the Science in Hospice and Palliative Care.