What is Palliative Care?

Palliative Medicine is a specialty that focuses on Quality of Life for patients and families facing serious illness.

• Ehlers Danlos Syndrome

• Rett Syndrome

• Mitochonrial disease

• Fabry’s Disease

• Gauche’s Disease

• SMA I & II

• ALS

• Atypical Parkinsons Disease

• ALL

• Trisomy 18

• Tay Sach’s

• Pulmonary Hypertension

• Lewy Body Dementia

• Holoprosencephally

• Complex Congenital Heart Disease

• Juvenile Huntington’s Disease

• Cystic Fibrosis

• Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy

Note that Palliative Medicine will not take over your care, but can assist with symptom management, coordination of care with your primary and sub-specialist providers, as one part of your overall medical team. Care is developed and tailored to Patient and Family Goals of Care.

What’s important to you is important to us!

In a word, “No.” Hospice is specifically designed for end of life care that can last days to many months. However, there are often times when it is appropriate and important to have difficult conversations in the face of serious illness. Palliative Care practitioners are trained to facilitate conversations about advance directives, code status and other topics, which can be medically and emotionally complex. At some point, all of us need to discuss these issues related to illness and mortality, and we believe, they are better addressed early in the course of an illness—it’s always much harder when patients & families have to address tough issues in the setting of an acute illness or health crisis.

Also important: We always ask permission before discussing any of these topics.

Like many things it life, my professional path seemed to evolve. It did not start in the direction of Palliative Medicine initially. In fact becoming board certified in Hospice & Palliative Medicine was not an option until 2008. I graduated from UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine in 1996.

Medical School was followed by a 4-year Combined Residency in Internal Medicine & Pediatrics at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, MA. While my wife finished her training in the same program, I worked in a local Emergency department until 2002, when I started my Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. This three year fellowship finished 2005.

My Critical Care Fellowship training was fantastic, and I practiced as a Pediatric Intensivist for almost 6 years. However, after my experiences working with severely ill children and their families in the PICU,  and much consideration, in 2011, I moved back to western NC and began learning and practicing Palliative Medicine.

That year, I applied to and was accepted in Harvard’s 8 month intensive Program for Palliative Care Education and Practice, and in 2012 became part of the 5th class boarded in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. In 2013 I also became a Board Certified Hospice Medical Director, and from 2013 to 2017, served as Medical Director for Palliative Care and Hospice for Harris Regional Hospital in Sylva, NC.

In mid-2018, I took my cumulative knowledge, training, and experience and started Skyland Palliative Medicine, P.A. (under the same roof and with the support of Sylva Family Practice) with the goal of serving patient and families facing serious illness in Sylva and the surrounding WNC communities. Our slogan is “Quality Medicine. Quality of Life.”

Everything in my professional life seems to have lead to this point, in this place. I am lucky to be practicing the medicine I love in the community that I love. I am keenly aware that none of this would be possible without the support from many, including: Dr. Roy Gallinger, Debbie Farmer, and the entire staff at Sylva Family Practice, Mistie Cooley & the leadership and staff at Skyland Care Center; Dr. Charlie Vargas; Ellie Franklin, RN; Without them, and (most of all) support from my (patient) wife and (awesome) kids, this practice and opportunity to serve my community would not be possible. Gratitude!