Symposium Spotlight Keynote Speakers
The National Symposium for Academic Palliative Care Education and Research is thrilled to have these innovative clinician educators as our Keynote Speakers for this year’s virtual Symposium Spotlights: What COVID-19 Has Taught Us About Inclusive, Interprofessional, Integrative Palliative Care.
Health Equity and Palliative Care in the Era of COVID-19
Jessica Zitter, MD, MPH and Cynthia Carter Perrilliat, MPA, BA
10 a.m. to 12 p.m. PT Oct. 8
Cynthia Carter Perrilliat, MPA, BA
Co-founder and Executive Director of the Alameda County Care Alliance Collaborative (ACCAC)
The Rev. Cynthia Carter Perrilliat is a healthcare change agent who leads the Alameda County Care Alliance Collaborative (ACCAC), a faith-based program in partnership with clinical, academic, and community organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area.
For the past 15 years, she has been an innovator in end-of-life care program development and educational training focused on expanding access to care in the African American community.
The ACCA Advanced Illness Care Program™ helps people with advanced illnesses and their caregivers address spiritual, physical, psychosocial, and caregiving needs by empowering them and linking them to trusted resources in the community. Rev. Perrilliat is leading strategic planning to replicate and scale the program on a regional and national level.
Previously, as part of VITAS Healthcare, she established a targeted compassionate care approach to communities of color, adopted across the 17 states that VITAS serves. She also served as faculty for Duke University APPEAL program, a palliative care educational curriculum for African Americans at the end of life.
Jessica Zitter, MD, MPH
Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco, and Critical Care Physician, Highland Hospital, Oakland
Dr. Jessica Zitter is a critical care physician and palliative care specialist in Oakland, CA, who is helping to shape the national conversation around how we die in America and shining a light on healthcare disparities that can worsen the end-of-life experience for African American patients and families.
The author of the book, “Extreme Measures – Finding a Better Path to the End of Life,” Dr. Zitter and her work with patients and families facing end-of-life was featured in the Academy Award-nominated short subject documentary, “Extremis,” now streaming on Netflix.
She is a contributing writer to the New York Times and the Huffington Post, and her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Time, Journal of the American Medical Association, and many other media.
Palliative Care and COVID-19: The Impact of Interdisciplinary Teams and Telemedicine on Underserved Communities
Michael Fratkin, MD
10 a.m. to 12 p.m. PT Nov. 5
Michael Fratkin, MD
Founder and CEO, ResolutionCare Network
Dr. Fratkin is a groundbreaking palliative care physician and telemedicine pioneer who is the Founder/CEO of ResolutionCare, a community-based palliative care program that serves patients and families in rural communities in Northern California.
An innovator and educator in the use of telehealth technology to expand access to and delivery of palliative care, Dr. Fratkin, approaches life and the practice of medicine with love and respect.
His ResolutionCare Network has become a national model in leveraging partnerships with existing healthcare providers and payers to provide telehealth applications that bring greater quality of living and greater quality of dying.
Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, Dr. Fratkin has shared his expertise via open forums, workshops, podcasts, and national media coverage to help thousands of healthcare professionals nationwide rapidly implement telehealth services to care for patients and families at a distance.