AAHPM Communities
Are you seeking unique opportunities to network, collaborate, and share information with other members who practice in similar settings or have common interests?
AAHPM communities, which include special interest groups (SIGs) and forums, provide an arena for members to discuss a particular topic of interest. Our communities meet in person at the Annual Assembly, collaborate on symposia submissions for the Annual Assembly, and provide input to the Academy as thought leaders. With over 30 communities available, you will be sure to find a group that fits your particular interests.
Become a Community Leader
If you are interested in becoming a leader of one of the communities below, please send your CV and 100-word statement of interest to email Emily Muse at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . The role of a community leader is a 3-year commitment with duties such as, teleconference meetings, email communications and attendance at the Annual Assembly. Deadline to share interest is November 1, 2017.
AAHPM Connect
AAHPM Connect is an engaging online discussion platform that contains practice based discussion groups. This is the best place to ask advice, share your expertise, exchange ideas and most important, and connect with other members SIGs and forums.
View a list of AAHPM's communities. You can join as many as you want to begin networking and sharing information with your peers. AAHPM Connect is a member benefit. Not yet a member? Join AAHPM today to connect with a SIG or Forum.
How to Join
Follow these instructions to join one or more of AAHPM's communities. Once you have joined, you will automatically be included in the AAHPM Connect community platform.
If you are interested in creating a new community, please contact Emily Muse at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Special Interest Groups and Forums
View the complete list and description of each special interest group and forum discussion communities below.
Special Interest Groups
Cancer – focuses on issues particular to the delivery of hospice and palliative medicine for patients with cancer.
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Early Career Professionals - focuses on education, networking and careers, and involvement with fellowship program development.
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Education - provides a community for networking, identifying and sharing resources, and collaborating with those that share a passion for and interest in hospice and palliative medicine education.
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Emergency Medicine - disseminates awareness and knowledge to other emergency medicine providers and those interested in supporting patients with serious illness that present to the emergency department at the generalist level and subspecialty levels.
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Ethics - focuses on ethical issues particular to the delivery of palliative and hospice care.
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Fellowship Directors - supports program directors in their endeavors to train and nurture capable, professional HPM trainees.
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Global HPM - aims to connect, inspire, and mobilize individuals who are passionate about seeing access to palliative care expanded globally through sustainable, culturally appropriate models of care delivery.
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Heart Failure - identifies current knowledge and practice regarding palliative and hospice care for persons with heart failure.
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Humanities and Spirituality - promotes a holistic, integrative approach to palliative medicine that acknowledges cultural, spiritual and psychosocial aspects of care of patients, families and caregivers.
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ICU - explores and publicizes the unique needs of ICU patients and families and facilitates networking between palliative medicine providers with a specific interest in ICU patients and critical care.
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Integrative Medicine - promotes educational and research collaborations and develops best-practices to serve the wellbeing of patients and practitioners while cultivating the values and goals of integrative medicine.
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LGBTQ - works to improve the experiences of LGBTQ patients in palliative care settings by promoting patient outreach, patient advocacy, education and research and provides a supportive infrastructure for faculty development among LGBTQ-identified palliative care providers.
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Long-Term Care/Geriatrics - promotes education and creates opportunities for hospice and palliative care clinicians to network, share expertise and advocate for potentially underserved and vulnerable geriatric populations in long-term care settings.
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Osteopathic - promotes collaborative professionalism with the AOA and provides information to physicians who wish to advance their palliative medicine specialization.
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Outpatient Palliative Care - advocates in the palliative care and medical community for issues that are germane to the field and fosters communication between interprofessional outpatient palliative medicine providers.
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Pediatrics - focuses on issues particular to the delivery of palliative and hospice care for the pediatric patient population; serves as a forum for examining and a vehicle for influencing those issues and care.
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Pharmacotherapy – works to investigate and promote the safe and effective use of pharmacotherapy interventions for patients with advanced illness.
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Physician Assistants – Focuses on the PA’s scope of practice: pain and symptom management, facilitation of family meetings, providing guidance to patients and their families with complex treatment choices, and coordination with other health care providers.
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Program Chiefs - provides a forum for hospice and palliative medicine program leaders to discuss their administrative responsibilities and advance their program mission.
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Psychosocial and Mental Health - allows for interfacing and synergy among the psychosocial care providers, promotes the field to other psychosocial care providers, assists with navigating the role of providing psychosocial care in hospice and palliative care settings.
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Rural - addresses issues of rural, semi-rural, and underserved areas to connect, network, and address clinical and regulatory issues, and share ideas for development of educational offerings of collective interests. Includes: physicians, ARNPs, PA-Cs and other professionals working in hospice and/or palliative care programs as well as those who practice this care as part of their primary or specialty practices.
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Research - provides opportunities for researchers to network, build research collaborations, share strategies for designs, research funding, and the application of research findings to practice.
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Safety Net - shares strategies for equitable access to quality palliative care; coordinates research initiatives relevant to reducing disparities and barriers in end-of-life care for racially and culturally diverse, medically underserved patient populations.
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Senior Clinicians - provides opportunities for clinicians to network and discuss their changing roles within their settings of practice. This would include retiring, working to balance work and planning for the next phase, and sharing ideas for negotiating cutting back on work loads while remaining active in mentoring, and strategic guidance.
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Substance Abuse and Diversion - promotes research into issues related to substance abuse and diversion in the palliative care and hospice population.
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Surgical and Perioperative Care - improves the trajectories of care of patients with problems that may be treated with intervention or surgery, through interdisciplinary efforts geared toward better symptom management, goal-oriented decision-making, and appropriate utilization of advance directives.
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Veterans - serves as a forum for education, advocacy and collaboration; their mission is to improve the care of veterans in all settings and provide education about unique care needs of veterans.
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Forums
Black Professionals, Patients and Families in HPM - works to diversify and grow the membership of the subspecialty, through educational efforts to increase the number of Black medical professionals choosing to practice/provide hospice and palliative care.
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East and South Asian Patients, Families and Professionals in HPM - discuss and further stimulate interest in issues that affect these communities by exploring strategies to provide easy access and high quality care.
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Kidney - intends to share and improve knowledge, establish best practices and encourage collaboration among nephrology clinicians, primary care clinicians, and palliative care and hospice providers caring for patients with kidney disease.
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Latino(a) Professionals, Patients and Families in HPM - works to improve the overall distribution of hospice and palliative care services to the Latino population in the United States by advocating and providing education and resources to colleagues, encouraging research in this realm, and providing a safe, nurturing environment to those clinicians providing hospice and palliative care to this community.
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Physician-Assisted Death - provide Academy members with a source of reliable clinical information regarding this end of life option.
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Rehabilitation - advocates rehabilitation medicine and strategies as tools to help improvecare for patients with life threatening and chronic serioues illnesses.
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