AAHPM reached out to the 2024 Emerging Leaders to gain insight into what motivated them to pursue leadership positions and what they find more fulfilling in their experiences. Rex Alvin Paulino, MD has been recognized as one of the exceptional individuals chosen as a 2024 AAHPM Emerging Leader in Hospice and Palliative Care.
Who has most influenced your work and how have they shaped your contributions?
Sometimes, one person can inspire you to elevate your career into a calling. Dr. Olusegun Apoeso was one of my attendings during my Geriatric Medicine fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in NY. He is an excellent mentor and a wonderful friend! Seeing him in action when conversing with patients and their families while advocating for their quality of life is truly inspiring. He has a God-given gift for connecting with people and bringing out the best in the people around him. Immediately, I told myself, “I want to do that!” This experience set off events that eventually paved the way for my Geriatric and Palliative Medicine career at the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHealth) Houston, where I am involved in undergraduate and graduate medical education.
What is the significance to you of being recognized as a “Emerging Leader” in Hospice and Palliative Medicine?
This recognition is a humbling reminder that we can make a difference in our patient’s lives with dedication and steadfast intent to advocate for high-quality patient care. My work at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston has allowed me to train the next generation of physician leaders. I have served as the associate program director for the Hospice and Palliative Medicine (HPM) fellowship at UTHealth Houston and the co-director of the Geriatric and Palliative Medicine (GPM) scholarly concentrations program at McGovern Medical School since 2018. I developed our serious illness communication curriculum for the GPM fellows and have been expanding it at McGovern Medical School. I work with the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Chronic Care Test Material Development Committee (TMDC) and have been an item writer for high-yield geriatric and palliative care topics since 2020. I serve as the academic chair for the Texas Consortium of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, and our goal is to improve the accessibility of palliative care education throughout Texas. Recently, I joined the newly developed Aquifer Clinical Excellence Board to advance palliative care education in allopathic, osteopathic, physician assistant, and nurse practitioner schools. These efforts represent the culmination of years of advocacy and passion for improving equitable healthcare delivery.
What is your aspiration for the evolution of hospice and Palliative Medicine?
The definitive goal is to introduce Hospice and Palliative Medicine earlier into the medical school curriculum so that future physicians develop a stronger foundation in the essential competencies to provide high-quality care to patients living with serious illnesses. Immersing learners at this early stage gives us the best chance of improving the recognition of unmet palliative care needs. In doing so, we can effectively “palliate” clinicians and our patients!
Learn more about the AAHPM 2024 Emerging Leaders in Hospice and Palliative Care and view a full list of all current and past Emerging Leaders.