Joanne Wolfe, MD, MPH
| Department | Hematology/Oncology |
 |
| Hospital Title |
Director, Pediatric Palliative Care Boston Children's Hospital
Division Chief, Pediatric Palliative Care Service |
|
| Academic Title | Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School | |
| Phone | 617-632-5286 | |
| Fax | 617-632-2270 | |
| Joanne Wolfe | ||
| Location |
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute 450 Brookline Avenue, D1103 Boston, MA 02215 |
Research Overview
Joanne Wolfe's research focuses on palliative care. Through clinical trials, she is evaluating approaches to care that preserve hope and optimize quality of life and comfort. Her projects include:
A prospective longitudinal study observing a cohort of children with advanced cancer and their families. It is designed to delineate the quality of key elements of care by studying parent and physician perceptions about prognosis and treatment goals, symptoms, and quality of life in children.
An intervention that provides feedback on symptom and quality-of-life scores as a component of the routine care of children with advanced cancer. This feedback is provided by a computerized data collection system called Pediatric Quality of Life Evaluation of Symptoms Technology (PediQUEST). The system generates electronic mail notifications alerting providers to repeated high levels of symptom distress. This, in turn, may lead to better control of symptoms and result in less distress. Greater attention to quality of life also may stimulate parent and physician communication about prognosis and treatment goals and lead to earlier decision-making about palliative care outcomes.
About Joanne Wolfe
Dr. Wolfe received her MD from Harvard Medical School and her MPH from Harvard School of Public Health. She completed an internship, residency and chief residency in pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital and a fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She directs the Pediatric Advanced Care Team (PACT), a palliative care service at both BCH and the DFCI. PACT was a finalist for The Schwartz Center Compassionate Caregiver Award in 2010.
Key Publications
- Ullrich CK, Dussel V, Hilden JM, Shaeffer JW, Lehmann L, Wolfe J. End-of-life experience of children undergoing stem cell transplantation for malignancy: parent and provider perspectives and patterns of care. Blood. 2010 May 13;115(19):3879-85.
- Dussel V, Bona K, HeathJA, Hilden JM, Weeks JC, Wolfe J. Unmeasured costs of a child’s death: Perceived financial burden, work disruptions, and economic coping strategies used by American and Australian families who lost a child to cancer. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2011;29(9):1007-1013. Epub 2011 Jan 4.
- Feudtner C, Kang T, Hexem K, Friedrichsdorf S, Osenga K, Siden H, Friebert S, Hays R, Dussel V, Wolfe, J. Patients Receiving Pediatric Palliative Care Consultations: A Prospective Multicenter Cohort Study. Pediatrics, 2011 Jun;127(6):1094-101, Epub 2011 May 9.
