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 provide an arena for members to discuss a particular topic of interest and include:
AAHPM Communities provide a space for members interested in a particular topic or area of practice to meet and discuss matters of common interest.
Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
Each SIG is typically populated with 5% or more of the total AAHPM membership. View the many SIGs that you can participate in on AAHPM Connect.
Cancer and Cancer Treatment – focuses on issues at the interface of cancer care and palliative and hospice care and serve as a forum to network and advocate to positively influence these areas for the benefit of patients, families and clinicians.
Early Career Professionals – focuses on education, networking and careers, and involvement with fellowship program development.
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. This SIG supports all aspects of HPM education including supporting HPM fellowship program directors in their endeavors to train and nurture capable, professional HPM trainees.
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.
Ethics – focuses on ethical issues particular to the delivery of palliative and hospice care.
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.
Heart Failure – identifies current knowledge and practice regarding palliative and hospice care for persons with heart failure.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Medical Aid in Dying – provides members with a source of reliable clinical information regarding this end-of-life option.
Neuropalliative – intends to inspire and encourage the exchange of knowledge and experiences, establish best practices, and foster collaboration amongst neurologists, geriatricians, primary care providers, and hospice and palliative care providers to advance clinical care, education and research in hospice and palliative medicine.
Osteopathic – promotes collaborative professionalism with the AOA and provides information to physicians who wish to advance their palliative medicine specialization.
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.
Pharmacotherapy – works to investigate and promote the safe and effective use of pharmacotherapy interventions for patients with advanced illness.
Primary Care – supports, develops and explores the systematic delivery of basic palliative care in primary care practices through education, advocacy, research, and leadership.
Program Chiefs – provides a forum for hospice and palliative medicine program leaders to discuss their administrative responsibilities and advance their program mission.
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.
Research – provides opportunities for researchers to network, build research collaborations, share strategies for designs, research funding, and the application of research findings to practice.
Rural – addresses issues of rural, semi-rural, and underserved areas to connect, network, and address clinical and regulatory issues, and share ideas for the 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.
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.
Substance Use Disorder and Diversion – promotes research into issues related to substance abuse and diversion in the palliative care and hospice population.
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.
Veterans – serve 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.
Forums
Forums are typically populated with 2% or less of the total AAHPM membership. View the forums you can participate in on AAHPM Connect.
Black Professionals, Patients, and Families in HPC – 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.
Chronic Organ Failure – focuses on the unique unmet palliative care needs for patients living with serious illnesses related to chronic organ failure, including those with chronic respiratory, renal, and liver disease. Our overall goal is to support a multidisciplinary network of Palliative professionals dedicated to improving best practices for these patients and their caregivers through research, education, and clinical innovations.
Early Investigators – provides a critical opportunity for peer support, collaboration, and development among early career researchers in the hospice and palliative medicine field.
East and South Asian Professionals, Patients, and Families in HPC – discuss and further stimulate interest in issues that affect these communities by exploring strategies to provide easy access and high-quality care.
Grief, Bereavement, and Resiliency – supports the workforce by studying how to manage caregiver grief and bereavement and study effective ways of promoting resilience for which we have insufficient data.
Latinx Professionals, Patients, and Families in HPC – 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.
Safe Use of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies – engages clinicians and researchers in exploring the potential efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapies to alleviate suffering among people with serious medical conditions.
Self-Care – seeks to provide real-time strategies for self-care for all members, including means for connection with other providers, resilience-building activities, and immersive experiences at the annual meeting.
Telehealth and Technology – facilitate insightful discussions, create and share best practices surrounding telehealth, partner for research projects and exchange ideas around how digital health tools, artificial intelligence, and other innovations can be implemented in HAPC.
Wellbeing, Wellness, and Burnout – supports the workforce by study, discussion, and dissemination of best practices in promoting clinician wellness from both organizational and individual perspectives.
Member Councils
Councils provide input on key initiatives and activities within AAHPM and create a community where individuals who work in similar settings can more easily connect and support one another.
These councils, created by the Board of Directors, provide opportunities for engagement in the Academy and represent three of the Academy’s largest constituent groups:
Academic Palliative Medicine – work through the Academy governance structure to ensure that issues and programs important to academic palliative medicine physicians are addressed and developed. The APM Council will foster and build meaningful communication, connection, and collaboration among academic palliative medicine professionals, expand and develop opportunities for physicians to further engage within the Academy, and identify and develop resources for academic palliative medicine physicians.
Hospice Medicine – work through the Academy governance structure to ensure that issues and programs important to hospice physicians are addressed and developed. The HM Council will foster and build meaningful communication, connection and collaboration among hospice professionals, expand and develop opportunities for hospice physicians to further engage within the Academy and identify and support resources for hospice physicians.
Pediatric – work through the Academy governance structure to ensure that issues and programs important to pediatric members are addressed and developed. The Peds Council will further develop advocacy for ongoing concurrent care in pediatrics, quality improvement and research initiatives, and pediatric educational priorities in HPM training.
AAHPM Connect
AAHPM Connect is an engaging online discussion platform that contains practice-based discussion groups. This is the best place to ask for advice, share your expertise, exchange ideas, and most importantly, connect with other members by joining SIGs and forums discussion pages.
AAHPM Connect is a member benefit. Not yet a member? Join AAHPM today to connect with a SIG or forum.
How to Join a Community
Want to be a part of our online discussion platform? AAHPM members can follow these steps to join. You can join as many as you want to begin networking and sharing information with your peers.
- Log in to your AAHPM account.
- After you have logged in, select “My Account” in the top right-hand corner.
- Select “My Communities” on the left-hand side.
- Add a checkmark next to each SIG, Forum or Council name you would like to join.
- Click “save”.
Once you have joined, you will automatically be included in the AAHPM Connect community platform within 20 minutes.
Any questions, please contact Member Services at [email protected].