Susan E. Cohen – August 2014

Since 2008, Dr. Susan E. Cohen has been the Medical Director of the Palliative Care Program at Bellevue Hospital Center, the oldest public hospital in the United States. While at Bellevue, she has led the program’s development of a robust and growing consultation service, thriving outpatient palliative care service and accredited hospice and palliative medicine fellowship. Her areas of interest are program development, Safety Net issues, education, advance care planning, and outpatient palliative medicine services.

In addition, Dr. Cohen is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine. She also served as the co-chair of the Health and Hospitals Corporation Palliative Care Council, as well as on committees that include the Bellevue Ethics Committee, Greater New York Hospital Association Palliative Care Leadership Network, and Center for American Politics and Citizenship (CAPC) Advisory Board.

Dr. Cohen graduated from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed residency training in internal medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. She joined the staff at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in 2000 as a primary care physician with an interest in palliative care. She went on to complete board certification in hospice and palliative medicine in 2005.

While at the VA, she developed a formal outpatient palliative care clinic for veterans, was Co-Director of the accredited Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Fellowship Program, and Director of the Palliative Care Program. She is one of the co-founders of the new Safety Net special interest group within the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.