
Karin B. Porter-Williamson, MD FAAHPM
University of Kansas Medical Center
AAHPM reached out to the 2024 Visionaries to gain insight into what motivated them to pursue leadership positions and what they find more fulfilling in their experiences. Karin B. Porter-Williamson, MD FAAHPM has been recognized as one of the exceptional individuals chosen as a 2024 AAHPM Visionaries in Hospice and Palliative Care.
Who has most influenced your work and how have they shaped your contributions?
My fellowship training and early years of professional development were strongly influenced by my mentor and fellowship director at that time, Charles Von Gunten of San Diego Hospice. I have core memories of his guidance about building Palliative Care services- “Say yes, figure out how to help, then educate/direct when other resources might be more helpful. Just dont say no. Figure out how to help your colleague who has figured out how to say “yes” to Palliative Care.” Much of the rest of my career has been influenced by my partners and teammates doing Palliative Care at the University of Kansas Health System. Drs Lindy Landzaat, Christian Sinclair, Lori Olson, APPs Carol Mulvenon, Marilyn Parker, MSW Kate Shoemaker, RNs Amy Velasquez, Annie Rogers, Wendy Thomas— there are more than 50 people on the team now, but these folks – we have literally been in the trenches together for well more than a decade. We have grown together, we push each other, keep each other’s backs, support each other to be the best we can. Each of them has helped me to grow as a leader, encouraged me to take the leaps necessary for program growth and excellence, and helped me to highlight my own work and contributions, as this is not something I am naturally inclined to do.
What is the significance to you of being recognized as a “Visionary” in Hospice and Palliative Medicine?
It is deeply meaningful to me to be recognized as a visionary in the field of HPM. In my personal statement for fellowship, in 2002, I described my belief that Palliative Medicine is just a twist in approach to the practice of standard, high quality Medicine, applying expert communication skills and goal directed, patient centered care to ALL providers’ practice. I insisted that Palliative Care is a standard part of excellent patient care as opposed to a fringe/sideline afterthought. For the past 22 years at KU we have pushed and prodded the culture of practice, the culture of medical and nursing training in this direction. We certainly aren’t done, but we’ve come a long, long way. We knew we needed to “grow our own” Palliative Medicine fellows/doctors, so in 2005 we started one of the very first HPM fellowships in the Midwest, in collaboration with Kansas City Hospice and Palliative Care, with training split 50/50 for the two sides of the specialty. I am of course biased, but I think our fellowship is soundly one of the strongest in the nation. We have now trained more than 50 fellows in both adult and pediatric palliative care. When I was a fellow in San Diego, a patient’s wife told me “I wish he didn’t have to be dying in order to get this kind of care.” Her words have stuck with me. I hope my work has impacted my health system and the state of Kansas in such a way as to help realize her wish for others.
What is your aspiration for the evolution of hospice and Palliative Medicine?
My ongoing hope and vision for the field of Palliative Medicine is that the participants in healthcare at large (payers, providers, systems, patients and families) come to embrace the true value of Palliative Care services, applied appropriately- right time, patient, place. I truly believe when a system embraces the core processes, skills and interventions of primary and specialty Palliative Care, that system can fundamentally alter the delivery of health care in a positive way for the patient and family. These things- The mantra “The goals of care drive the plan of care”; Honest, effective, empathetic communication in the face of serious illness; Access to the right supports across the continuum to meet the patient where they are at- if we can continue to push and prod the culture of practice, the payment systems, and societal understanding of the benefit in this direction, we will go a long way towards true integration of Palliative Care into the very fabric of healthcare. That will take longer than the timeline of my career to achieve, but I hope I have pushed it in every way I can and encouraged those around me to carry it on.
Learn more about the AAHPM 2024 Visionaries in Hospice and Palliative Care and view a full list of all current and past Visionaries.