HPM doctoral student honored by American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine
| December 13, 2012 | |
Dio Kavalieratos
Dio Kavalieratos, PhD, who plans to graduate later this month with a doctoral degree in health policy and management from Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been selected by The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) to receive the organization’s Young Investigator Award. Kavalieratos’s dissertation research took top honors, having been deemed “outstanding” by members of an AAHPM scientific subcommittee.
Specifically, the research examines why patients with advanced heart failure use palliative care less often than do patients with advanced cancer, despite similarities in symptoms and prognosis.
“Dio excelled in our program,” said Morris Weinberger, PhD, Vergil N. Slee Distinguished Professor of Healthcare Quality Management in the health policy and management department and chair of Kavalieratos’s dissertation committee. “In this particular paper, he was able to identify barriers regarding palliative care that providers perceive heart-failure patients as having.”
Heart failure is a serious condition that affects 5.7 million Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Through his research, Kavalieratos found, for example, that many physicians are hesitant to discuss palliative care with patients, fearing they will interpret this as the doctor’s “giving up” on them. Palliative care often is misinterpreted narrowly as end-of-life care, but it also is focused upon relieving pain, symptoms and stress related to a serious illness, relief which can improve overall care.
Kavalieratos plans to build on his research in this area to develop strategies to promote palliative care among heart-failure patients.
“If successful, his future research could increase access to palliative care for patients with advanced disease who desire this option,” Weinberger said.
Kavalieratos will present his paper, “What Do Providers Perceive as Patient-level Palliative Care Uptake Barriers in Heart Failure? A Qualitative Analysis,” at AAHPM’s annual assembly on March 16, 2013, in New Orleans.
He is also the recipient of the School’s 2012 Jean Yates Outstanding Doctoral Student Award, which recognizes the health policy and management doctoral student who has distinguished himself or herself for scholarship in health services research and contributions to the discipline.
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: David Pesci, director of communications, (919) 962-2600 or dpesci@unc.edu. |
|
