Texas Tech Palliative Care Fellowship
Department of Family & Community Medicine • Lubbock

Program Vision
Train fellows who will be competent in all areas of patient and family care in the fields of both Hospice and Palliative Medicine to become clinician leaders for the institutions in which they will work.
Educational Strengths
It is the overall goal of this fellowship to produce doctors that are competent in all aspects of fields of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. The fellows will be exposed to and work within teams who have built practices of excellence in these areas. We will use the guidelines provided in Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care as the key map of what objectives to pursue. Lubbock is uniquely prepared to accomplish these goals as we have the following components present:
- The program director is also a full-time medical director for a local hospice, allowing the fellows excellent training in home- and long-term-care facility patient assessments and treatment. It also allows them see system-based practice features with exposure to the role of medical director.
- The program is partnered with a local hospice that provides pediatric care with a medical director who is a pediatric oncologists, allowing fellows excellent training in pediatric hospice care.
- The primary hospice site has a free standing in-patient unit, allowing excellent training in in-patient hospice care.
- The fellows will spend 6 months with a successful in-patient palliative care consult service at a community hospital, allowing excellent training in the field of palliative medicine in a multi-discipline team that is recognized as being a leader in the palliative medicine in this region with unique services such as consultation to the pediatric and neonatal intensive care units and consultation as part of the trauma team at the hospital.
- The program features a didactic series using the latest in education theories for building the fellows ability to be life-long learners and have competency based education in professionalism, system-based practice, medical knowledge, communication skills, and practice-based learning. The didactics are modeled after educational leadership being provided by the Palliative Care Education Project of Harvard University.
- Most of the physicians with whom the fellows will be working are Board Certified in Hospice and Palliative Medicine, including the hospice director and the palliative care physician leader.
It is the intent of the educators of this program not only to model patient and family care, but also to model how to provide leadership for the hospice and palliative care movement in the areas in which they work in the future. This program offers direct training in the aspects of being a medical director, in how to produce quality improvement programs and scholarly pursuits, and in personal growth and development of leadership skills.
Requirements
- Graduate of an Accredited Program in Family Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Neurology/Psychiatry, Surgery, Radiology, Anethesiology, or Physical Medicine & Rehab
- Must be licensable in the State of Texas
- USMLE passed in the first two attempts for each step
- International Medical Graduates: Only Visa acceptable is J1 Visa
- Application Deadline: September 1
HOW TO APPLY
Contact Heather Cortez for an application:
heather.cortez@ttuhsc.edu743-7864
Mail your application to:
Family Medicine Palliative Care Fellowship
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
3601 4th Street, MS 8143
Lubbock, TX 79430
Or email it to:
OUR FACILITIES
- VistaCare (hospice care)
- Texas Tech Physicians’ Pavilion
- Carillon LifeCare Community (assisted living)
- Covenant Medical Center (in-patient palliative care team)
- Hospice of Lubbock (pediatric hospice team)
- International Pain Clinic
PALLIATIVE MEDICINE FACULTY
- Tommie W. Farrell, MD
Family Medicine- Palliative Care - Kelly Klein, MD
Family Medicine- Palliative Care - Jeremy Brown, MD
Internal Medicine and Pediatrics- Palliative Care - Betsy Goebel Jones, EdD
Women’s Health & Family Medicine Research Director - Cynthia Jumper, MD
Internal Medicine- Palliative Care - Melanie Oblender MD
Pediatrics- Palliative Care
CONTACT US:
Feel free to contact the Department of Family and Community Medicine with any questions you may have:
- Call us at: 806-743-7864 Email us: heather.cortez@ttuhsc.edu
- Drop by for a visit in Room 4B313
- Write to us:
Family Medicine
Palliative Care Fellowship
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
3601 4th Street, MS 8143
Lubbock, TX 79430
Download the brochure for the Palliative Care Fellowship here:
Palliative Care Fellowship Brochure
Meet Our Palliative Care Fellows Here