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Final Program


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AAHPM Abstract Award Winner
AAHPM Abstract Award Winner
HPNA Abstract Award Winner
HPNA Abstract Award Winner
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Registration Required
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AAHPM Abstract Award Winner
AAHPM Abstract Award Winner
HPNA Abstract Award Winner
HPNA Abstract Award Winner

Joseph Shega, MD

Chief Medical Officer
VITAS Healthcare

Joseph W. Shega MD is Board Certified in Geriatric and Hospice and Palliative Medicine and maintains an academic appointment at the University of Central Florida as an Associate Professor of Medicine. The first 15 years of his career was in academic medicine at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago doing clinical care, education, and research including NIH funding around serious illness and dementia care. For the past 10 years, Dr. Shega has practiced in Central Florida initially as a regional medical director, then as the national medical director, and more recently as the chief medical officer for VITAS Healthcare. In his current role, Dr. Shega has been instrumental in adapting a "mobile first" platform to bring technology to the bedside in patients homes to improve clinical care through enhanced clinical documentation, medication management, care coordination, and most recently virtual reality as an alternative treatment modality. Also, he has spearheaded efforts to integrate clinical research as a core pillar at VITAS incluing study participation in survey, observational, and interventional trials. At the national level, Dr. Shega helped spearhead development of quality measures for persons with dementia that incorporate geriatric and palliative principles as a member of the American Academy of Neurology Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment measurement group. He has been appointed and serves on the National Academy of Medicine Roundtable on Quality Care for Persons with Serious Illness representing the American Geriatrics Society. Dr. Shega is co-managing editor for the Essential Practices in Hospice and Palliative Medicine and has over 50 peer-reviewed publications focusing on the care of persons with serious illness. He works with medical trainees across the state of Florida including at the University of Central Florida, University of Miami, and Naples Community Hospital.

Presentation(s):