Dr. Megan Johnson Shen
Dr. Megan Johnson Shen, Assistant Professor of Psychology in Medicine, Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, has received the highly competitive Kellen Junior Faculty Fellowship Award. The award will fund her research study on Advance Care Planning (ACP) and its critical connection to quality End-of-Life (EoL) care.
It is known that the provision of EoL care enables a greater likelihood of a patient’s wishes being followed at the end of life and that advance care planning plays a key role in this process. However, less than half of all cancer patients engage in ACP. Patients with low health literacy are at greatest risk for not engaging in and/or completing advance care directions. Therefore, Dr. Shen’s study is addressing this limitation with a pilot test of four easy-to-understand animated videos. The videos will educate patients on all aspects of ACP, beginning with a description of ACP and how to complete advance directives, as well as the importance of engaging in ACP and communicating ACP directives to loved ones, health care proxies, and providers.
The Weill Department of Medicine congratulates Dr. Shen on receiving a Kellen Junior Faculty Fellowship Award.
Through a generous gift from the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, the Kellen Junior Faculty Fellowship Program at Weill Cornell Medicine provides support to outstanding newly appointed (within 5 years) junior female faculty at the instructor or assistant professor levels. Kellen Fellowships are intended to provide support to junior female faculty, thereby allowing them to establish a scientific track record leading to success in research and promotion to a higher rank.