UCF-HCA Begin New Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship

UCF and HCA Healthcare are starting a new Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship program and are seeking applicants to begin training in July 2023.

The fellowship, which recently received initial ACGME accreditation, will include training at HCA Florida Osceola Hospital, the Orlando VA Medical Center, and Vitas Healthcare, the nation’s largest single-source provider of end-of-life care.

Hospice and palliative medicine is a subspecialty of internal, family, emergency or pediatric medicine where physicians specialize in the care of patients suffering from serious illnesses in a variety of settings, including at home, hospital and hospice facilities.

Diana Treu will lead the new fellowship program. Board certified in Internal, Geriatrics and Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine, Treu cares for veterans at the Orlando VA Medical Center. She received her MD degree at Fundacion Universitaria San Martin, School of Medicine in Colombia and her internal medicine residency at the University of Miami/JFK Medical Center Palm Beach Regional GME Consortium. She completed a Geriatric Medicine fellowship at Harvard Medical School and a Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship at George Washington University.

“Our mission for this fellowship is to train extraordinary physicians who excel in preventing and relieving suffering while improving the quality of life of our patients,” she says. “With our diverse training locations, fellows will have the opportunity to care for patients with a broad range of diagnoses and palliative care needs who represent every segment of our community in terms of socioeconomic and cultural background.”

The fellowship is a one-year program and will accept two fellows per year. All applicants must be graduates of an ACGME accredited residency.

Interested applicants should contact program coordinator Nichsma Jimenez at nichsma.jimeneznieves@va.gov.

With the new fellowship, the UCF-HCA graduate medical education consortium has 34 accredited residencies and fellowships across Florida training almost 520 doctors, making it one of the fastest growing GME programs in the state.