Vicki Jackson, MD, MPH
Rabkin Fellow in Medical Education
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Acting Chief, Palliative Care Service,
Massachusetts General Hospital
Fellowship Project: Evaluation and Assessment of an Advanced Communication Curriculum for Learners in Palliative Medicine
Dr. Jackson is the Chief of the Palliative Care Division at Massachusetts General Hospital and is the former Fellowship Director for the Harvard Palliative Medicine Fellowship. She completed residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at The Cambridge Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She pursued training in research methods through the Harvard General Medicine Fellowship and completed a Master’s in Public Health at The Harvard School of Public Health. She completed training in palliative care at The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She joined the faculty of Massachusetts General Hospital in 2002. She pursued further research training in the Program for Cancer Outcomes Training. She was selected in 2003 for the Harvard Academy Education Fellowship where her work focused on the development of end of life medical and communication curriculum which was the basis for the curriculum for the Harvard Palliative Medicine Fellowship. In 2009, she was selected as the Rabkin Fellow in Medical Education at Beth Israel Deaconnes Medical Center.
Currently, she is the Palliative Care lead investigator for a grant funded by the National Institutes of Health investigating the effect of early ambulatory palliative care for patients with advanced cancer. Her work focuses on developing curricula to train others in the communication skills required to deliver this care. She spends much of her time developing, teaching, and evaluating palliative medicine curricula for medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty. Nationally she served as Co-Chair for an innovative 3 year academic leadership training program for junior palliative medicine faculty with American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She also served as the Co-Editor for a series devoted to the clinician-educator in The Journal of Palliative Medicine. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and on ABC World News Tonight.