A culture of living well with
serious illness.
To improve the serious illness experience for patients, families, clinicians, and staff, through engagement, advance care planning, and innovation in education and technology.
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.
Andrea is a clinical social worker within the Division of Palliative Care and Geriatric Medicine at MGH. She earned her Master of Social Work degree with a Certificate in Health Care Social Work at Simmons University in 2019. Before she joined the Inpatient Palliative Care team at MGH, Andrea spent several years as a clinical social worker at Boston Children’s Hospital, where she was involved in numerous committees looking to improve communication around serious illness and goals of care, as well as improve institutional processes around end-of-life care. As the new social work representation on the Continuum Project, Andrea will be involved in co-creating and facilitating Serious Illness Conversation Trainings for inpatient Social Workers and Nurses at MGH.
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.
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.
Shanaz Sharieff is a Data Analyst at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Aging and Serious Illness at the Mongan Institute and the Department of Palliative Care. In this role, she manages the creation, maintenance, support, and innovation of databases and dashboards as well as data analytics. Prior to her current position, Shanaz gained experience through multiple internships – Millipore Sigma as a Junior Data Analyst and MGH as a Data Analyst Intern received her Dual Masters of Master of Business Administration and MS in Business Analytics from Suffolk University –Boston and her Bachelor’s degree in Business Management with Finance Major from one of the most well-reputed University in India. She has worked as a Teaching Assistant and Tutor at Suffolk University and enjoyed helping students, she has done multiple analytic projects using complex data sets. She is very data-driven and passionate to convert data into actionable solutions.
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 and provides administrative support. She has experience working in multiple areas of healthcare, including in 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 as well.
Dr. Wilson is a palliative care clinician and information technology specialist and who assists with the development of educational platforms and supports the integration of Continuum Project work into clinical workflow in the electronic health record.
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