Description of Research Expertise

Alison Haruta, MD is an Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Traumatology, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. She is board-certified in General Surgery, Surgical Critical Care, and Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She is active in national surgical societies and serves on the AAST Palliative Care Committee. Her research and scholarly work center on finding novel ways to integrate palliative care into the routine care of surgical patients and teaching effective communication skills to surgeons. She has authored national curricula for the ACS Resident Prep program and the Aquifer medical student palliative care modules, created multiple simulation-based training programs for residents and paramedics, and served as an instructor for medical students in their transition-to-residency and surgical competencies courses. Along with her colleagues at the University of Washington, she developed a series of surgical palliative care–focused episodes on the “Behind the Knife” podcast. She hopes to continue to demonstrate the value of utilizing palliative care alongside life sustaining care and is working to integrate more communication focused simulations into the surgical education curriculum.