We envision a health system in which all people across the continuum of age and illness receive care that focuses on what matters most to them, enhances well-being, and fosters respect and belonging.
Our mission is to elevate patient voices by improving communication and care planning between clinical teams, patients, and caregivers. We accomplish this through team-based education, patient and caregiver engagement, clinical champion development, data-driven improvement, and access to tools and resources.
Implements a systems-based approach to high-quality advance care planning that gives clinicians knowledge, skills and infrastructure.
Engages patients, families, clinicians and staff in the process of preparing for serious illness decision-making and empowers them to have their needs met.
Develops models of palliative care education that improve palliative care skills across all disciplines.
The Continuum Project is comprised of dozens of individuals that help to drive our mission to care for seriously ill patients. At the forefront of the project is our core team who work hand-in-hand with passionate scholars in each of our clinical areas across the hospital. We also have a wonderful support system of advisory boards who help guide the Continuum Project.
Dr. Lindenberger is a Geriatrician, Palliative Medicine Physician, and Director of the MGH Continuum Project. She serves as Core Faculty and Associate Director of Education in the MGH Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine. Throughout her career, Dr. Lindenberger has worked to improve the care of older adults and those with serious illness through educational innovation, fellowship training, and program development. Dr. Lindenberger has led communication-training programs for clinicians from all disciplines, and she serves as Senior Faculty for the national Vitaltalk program. Additionally, Dr. Lindenberger has dedicated herself to promoting palliative care within the field of neurology, with special focus on the care of patients with ALS, dementia, and other neurodegenerative diseases, and their caregivers.
Dr. Greenwald is a hospital medicine clinician and member of the Core Educator Faculty in the MGH Department of Medicine. He serves as Associate Director for Implementation within the Continuum Project. He works closely with the programs in Hospital Medicine, Neurology, Nephrology, and Pediatrics. Dr. Greenwald’s research examines triggers for palliative care involvement and how patients, families and clinicians are affected by systems that support serious illness conversations.
Joanna (Jo) Paladino, MD is a palliative care physician researcher at the Mongan Institute Center for Aging and Serious Illness and the Associate Director of Research for the Continuum Project at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Paladino has focused her career on designing, studying, and spreading a system-level serious illness communication intervention (Serious Illness Care Program, SICP) that includes structured communication tools, clinician skills training, and systems-innovations, including EHR integration. She has partnered with health systems and national organizations to adapt, implement, and study serious illness communication and care delivery innovations across specialties, clinical settings, and diverse patient populations. Dr. Paladino supports the research and evaluation efforts for the Continuum Project and has experience with intervention design, clinical research, mixed-methods, program evaluation, and implementation science. She teaches courses at Harvard Medical School in communication skills, train-the-trainer, and implementation. Dr. Paladino lives with her husband and son in Boston, Massachusetts.
Dr. Alexis Drutchas is a palliative care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency in Family Medicine at Brown University, and following residency was a primary care physician for four years at Fenway Health in Boston. She then went on to complete the Harvard Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Fellowship, and stayed on as part of the MGH inpatient palliative care team. Her work in the Continuum Project includes curriculum design and serious illness communication training for interdisciplinary clinicians and learners across MGH.
Susan Edgman-Levitan is the Director of the Stoeckle Center for Primary Care at MGH and a national expert on patient engagement with more than 25 years of patient engagement experience.
Dr. Tamra Keeney is a clinician scientist and physical therapist in the Division of Palliative Care & Geriatric Medicine and Mongan Institute Center for Aging and Serious Illness. Dr. Keeney completed her Doctor in Physical Therapy (DPT) in 2011 at Saint Louis University, a PhD in Rehabilitation Science from the MGH Institute of Health Professions in 2018, and an AHRQ T32 Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research at Brown University. Her work in the Continuum Projects includes program evaluation and increasing engagement of rehabilitation clinicians in serious illness communication training across MGH.
Angela Miller is the Senior Data Analyst at the Center for Aging and Serious Illness, where she serves as Analytical Co-Lead of the CASI Data Core. In her role she provides programming, analytical, and statistical support for projects. Angela completed her bachelors in economics from the University of Michigan and a masters in health economics from Eastern Michigan University. Prior to joining CASI and the Continuum Project, her previous work focused on evaluating Population Health Management programs for insurers and health systems. Her work with the Continuum Project focuses on program evaluation including database creation, metric development, and analytical reporting.
Michaela Rowland is a palliative care nurse practitioner with experience and training in oncology. In her role as the Nursing Education and Training Lead for the Continuum Project, she has a special interest in the integration of palliative care principles to nursing care for patients and families facing oncology diagnoses and serious illness.
Dr. Russell is a Geriatrics and Palliative Care Clinician with expertise and training in relationship centered communication (RCC) through the Academy on Communication in Healthcare, of which he is a faculty member. In addition to leading the implementation of the Serious Illness Care Program in Primary Care, he also serves as the Clinical Director of Geriatrics and the Medical Director of Ambulatory Geriatrics at MGH.
Jaclyn Shameklis, MD received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and her medical degree from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in Hanover, NH. She completed her internal medicine residency at Brown University in Providence, RI and stayed on for an additional year to work and teach as a Chief Resident. Following this, Dr. Shameklis began the Harvard Palliative Care Fellowship program and upon completion joined the MGB Palliative Care and Geriatric Medicine department as a palliative care attending in September 2020. Dr. Shameklis joined the Continuum Project in 2021 and is now working as a co-educational lead for the Serious Illness Conversation trainings.
Tingjia Shi is a Data Analyst at the Center for Aging and Serious Illness. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biological Science from University of Pittsburgh and a Master’s degree in Biostatistics from New York University. Her work in the Continuum Projects focuses on program evaluation including database creation, metric development, and analytical reporting.
Kelly has many years of healthcare experience in project management, process improvement/quality improvement, workflow integration as well as implementing and supporting hospital information systems. She assists with the development, organization, facilitation and implementation of the Continuum Project.
Keri assists with the advancement of Continuum Project initiatives specifically related to program evaluation & data as well as patient engagement. She has experience working in multiple areas of healthcare, including patient services, clinical research, and administration. Keri has an interest in health equity and community health, which is a lens she brings to this project.
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