Every path to palliative care is unique. For Jaya Gupta, DO, a residency rotation sparked a passion for helping patients and families navigate serious illness. Read on to learn more about their journey, accomplishments, and life beyond medicine.
Jaya Gupta, DO
Henry Ford Health
From Fellowship to Full-Time Palliative Care
I am a palliative medicine physician at Henry Ford Health. I joined in October 2022 after finishing my fellowship that summer and my role has evolved a lot since joining! I initially started with a joint appointment splitting my time between Hospital Medicine and Palliative Medicine, with the goal of combining my interests as an academic hospitalist. After about a year, I decided to transition to Palliative Medicine full-time. For almost two years, I split my time between coverage for our community hospice teams and the inpatient palliative service and am now focusing more on inpatient palliative.
I came to Palliative Medicine from an initial interest in Oncology. Over the years, I started to develop a greater interest in supportive oncology. I then did a palliative care rotation at the end of my PGY-2 year and had a pivotal moment where I realized that this was the right path for me. It was inspiring to see a field focused on treating patients’ symptoms, improving their quality of life, and helping them receive goal-concordant care.
Bridging Gaps: Education, Collaboration, and Compassion
One of the most important skills to be successful as an HPM clinician is excellent communication not just with patients and families, but with primary teams and clinicians who are consulting with the palliative and/or hospice teams. Many clinicians outside of HPM are not always comfortable with things like opioid prescribing or end of life care. A major part of our role is to provide this education to our colleagues, while also doing the best we can for patients and families.
Something I’m proud of is a recent quality improvement project to increase completion rates of serious illness conversations on our inpatient palliative care team at our flagship hospital. It was part of a multi-year effort initially started by our division head and one of my mentors, Dr. Kristen Chasteen, which I joined as a collaborator in 2024. We were able to present this work as a poster at the Annual Assembly earlier this year.
Finding Community and Leadership Through AAHPM
I joined the Academy during my fellowship. The most valuable member benefit has been the connections I’ve gained through attending the Annual Assembly twice and participating in Special Interest Groups. Connecting with colleagues from other institutions has helped a lot with my wellbeing and resilience. Dr. Laura Morrison, one of my fellowship program directors, inspired me to get more involved. I was the Chair of Cancer and Cancer Treatments SIG from 2025-2026 and am now the Chair-Elect of the Communities Committee. I’m also on the Medical Student and Resident Engagement Committee.
What’s Next: Education, Innovation, and Impact
I’ve received a lot of great advice over the years – it’s hard to name just one thing as the best advice! Right now, I’m continuing to develop my skills as a clinician-educator and am excited to be starting VitalTalk’s Faculty Development course later this year. I’m also working on growing our palliative care team’s collaboration with the hematology and bone marrow transplant teams at our institutions.
Recharging Through Music, Travel, and Nature
Outside of work, I enjoy traveling, playing the flute and piano, playing tennis (when my knee is cooperating), swimming, and going to musicals as well as orchestra/band concerts! I love spending time gardening after a busy week – it’s one of the best things I’ve found to help me decompress. A fun fact: I plan to see all 50 states someday and hopefully will get to #25 later this year (Vermont)!onal accomplishments are impressive, one fun and surprising fact adds a personal touch: Brett’s homemade apple pies have earned blue ribbons at state fairs.