Dr. Ellen Ji and Dr. Annie Schoen were named the 2022-2023 fellows for the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship offered through Kettering Health’s Soin Medical Center and Ohio’s Hospice.  

They will be the second class of the fellowship, which began in 2021. The Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program is a collaboration between Kettering Health’s Soin Medical Center and Ohio’s Hospice. The fellowship uses its extensive educational resources and diverse medical network to offer a wide range of unique educational experiences.

Fellows complete rotations at Soin Medical Center and Pure Healthcare for palliative training and Ohio’s Hospice of Dayton, an affiliate of Ohio’s Hospice, for hospice experience. 

The fellowship is a sub-specialty for physicians who are starting out in their medical careers or for those who are mid-career and want to move into this field of medicine. Faculty mentor the fellows in the values of healthy lifestyles, presence, mindfulness and the art of caring for each other as the techniques that help not only patients but also themselves. 

The fellowship is divided into 13 blocks providing dedicated time to focus on home care, inpatient unit care, hospital consultations, oncology training, and pediatric palliative care. In addition, the fellows conduct clinical research throughout the year and spend one morning a week for the year at an ambulatory clinic and one day at a geriatric clinic.

During the second half of the year, medical students and residents who rotate through Ohio’s Hospice are assigned to each of the fellows. In this way, they further their own education as they teach the next generation of practitioners, promoting the ideology and approach to medicine that is unique to hospice and palliative care.

Dr. Ji graduated from the Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine and is an academic chief resident at Five Rivers Family Medicine in Dayton, Ohio. “I hope to be a hospice and palliative medicine physician who is effective at managing both the pathophysiological and psychosocial complexities of chronic illness and end-of-life care,” Dr. Ji said. “I hope to be a source of comfort for patients and their families.” 

Dr. Schoen graduated from The Ohio State University College of Medicine and has experience both as a hospitalist and critical care specialist. “I am looking forward to gaining additional fellowship training to assist me as I take on challenging conversations with patients and families,” Dr. Schoen said. “The fellowship will help me in my role as a physician to relieve suffering and, I hope, provide a degree of peace.” 

For more information about the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program, click here.