Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship

HPM Fellowship

Here at the University of Minnesota’s Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program, we train our fellows to become expert hospice and palliative medicine clinicians. You will learn to serve our community with empathy, cultural humility, and intellectual curiosity by caring for those affected by serious illness at all stages and ages as a resilient member of an interprofessional team. 

TRAINING

This fellowship is a one-year ACGME-accredited training program. Our fellows train at selective community and academic sites as part of robust interprofessional teams in the adult as well as the pediatric world. They have the opportunity to see a broad variety of settings for hospice and palliative care. 

We are proud of our 100% board pass rate. A shout out to all our alumni: good job!
 

Training Tracks and Pathways

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Training Tracks and Pathways

Full-Time Adult Track

 The fellows complete their fellowship in 12 continuous months. 

  • 6-7 months inpatient consults at Hennepin Healthcare, University of Minnesota Medical Center, Regions Medical Center
  • 2 months with HealthPartners Hospice, a non-profit Medicare-certified team
  • 2-3 months at the inpatient hospice unit at the VA
  • 2-4 weeks with the pediatric palliative care team at Children’s
  • The continuity clinic in adult palliative care at the University of Minnesota is every other week

Full-Time Pediatric Track

The pediatric fellow completes 12 months of fellowship, 9 months in a dedicated pediatric setting: Children's Hospital and Clinics Minneapolis, Gillette Children's Rehab Hospital and Masonic Children’s. The pediatric fellow also gets to experience the HealthPartners Hospice team as well as the inpatient palliative care unit at the VA. 

  • The pediatric continuity clinic is at Children’s Hospital and Clinics in Minneapolis

Part-Time Adult

We are next recruiting for this track to start in July 2026. Please contact us directly if you are interested in this track.

  • The fellow on this track completes the same experiences as the fellows on the full-time adult track. However, for this, the fellow spends 3 months in the fellowship alternating with 3 months at their primary site. 

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Clinical Settings

University of Minnesota Medical Center

  • Inpatient consult service
  • Quaternary care center
    • ECMO program, LVAD program, BMT, solid organ transplant

Hennepin Healthcare 

  • Hennepin County safety net teaching hospital
  • Serves patients from diverse social, cultural, and economic backgrounds
  • Collaborative interdisciplinary consult team
  • Opportunity to work with other learners

Regions Hospital

  • Inpatient consult service
  • Level 1 trauma center

HealthPartners Hospice

  • Large Hospice

M Health Palliative Care Clinic

  • Fellow continuity clinic in adult track
  • Embedded in the cancer center
  • Referrals from cardiology, pulmonology, and neurology

VA Medical Center

  • Palliative Care Unit
  • Extensive interprofessional team including psychologist and pharmacist

Children’s Hospital and Clinics Minneapolis

  • Established pain and palliative care team
  • Pediatric continuity clinic

Gillette Children’s

Masonic Children’s

Current Fellows

a.breitenbucher

Ada Breitenbucher, MD

Medical School: University of Minnesota Medical School

Residency: Neurology, Barrow Neurological Institute/St. Joseph’s Program

r.fu_carrasco

Roberto Fu Carrasco, MD

Medical School: Universidad de Ciencias Medicas

Residency: Internal Medicine Residency at Hennepin Healthcare

Plaut

Erika Mendoza Plaut, MD

Medical School: Universidad Central de Venezuela Escuela de Medicina

Residency: Pediatric Critical Care, Albert Einstein Medical Center

Politsch

John Politsch, MD

Medical School: Rush Medical College of Rush University Medical Center

Residency: Family Medicine, St. Paul-Ramsey Family Medicine Residency

Chas Salmen, MD

Chas Salem, MD

Medical School: University of California-San Francisco

Residency: Family medicine, University of Minnesota North Memorial Family Medicine Residency

Schaffer

Emma Schaffer, MD

Medical School: University of Minnesota Medical School

Residency: Residency: Surgery, University of Minnesota Surgery Residency Program

Shepherd

Melody Shepherd, MD

Medical School: University of Minnesota Medical School

Residency: Family Medicine, University of Minnesota – Duluth Family Medicine Residency Program

Contact

Office address:
6-240 Phillips-Wangensteen Building
516 Delaware St SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Annette Nijjar, MD

 

 

 

 

Annette Nijjar, MD
Program Director
[email protected]

Matt Loosbrock

 

 

 

 

Matt Loosbrock
Program Coordinator
612-624-6998
[email protected]

Mailing address:
420 Delaware Street SE, MMC 381
Minneapolis, MN 5545

 

Hospice and palliative medicine fellow graduates and program director

Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship graduates, class of 2023, with Program Director Annette Nijjar, MD (center)

Benefits

The UMN Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellow Experience

Manuals

U of M Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship fellow with companion animals

Bias Reporting at the University

Submit anonymous incident reports online at BRRN UReport or incident reports can also be sent to [email protected].