Supportive Care Strategies

Laura Finn is Associate Director of Inpatient Oncology at Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Dr. Finn is also the Associate Director of Ochsner’s Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Program and the Key Investigator for Ochsner’s Precision Cancer Therapies Program in Hematology. Dr. Finn earned her medical degree from Louisiana State University and subsequently completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Earl K Long Hospital and a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. During fellowship she completed leukemia and lymphoma research at Mayo Clinic. After fellowship she completed a Mayo Clinic Scholarship in Blood and Marrow Transplant at the University of Minnesota. Board certified in Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology, and Hematology, Dr. Finn specializes in benign hematology, malignant hematology, and hematopoietic blood and marrow transplant.  As Assistant Professor of Medicine atMayo Clinic she started researching the roles of early palliative care in hematology malignancies and hematopoietic cell transplant before joining the Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplant faculty with the Ochsner Health System where she is expanding palliative care services to patients with hematologic malignancies. Dr. Finn has been published in several peer-reviewed journals including Cancer Epidemiology, Current Opinion in Hematology, Transfusion and Apheresis Science, Blood Coagulation and Fibrinolysis, and Annals of Allergy, Immunology, and Asthma. She has participated in a variety of clinical trials focusing on hematologic malignancies, served on advisory boards for community hospice and state oncology societies, and teaches extensively at many levels including peers at CME review courses as well as nurses, residents and fellows.Alva Roché-Green is Associate Director of the Hospice and Palliative Medicine FellowshipProgram at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.  Dr. Roché-Green earned her medical degree from Louisiana State University in New Orleans and subsequently completed a residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and a fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. Prior to her fellowship she spent 8 years working as a primary care physician and hospitalist then 2 years as an Associate Medical Director at Community Hospice of Northeast Florida. Board certified in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Dr. Roché-Green specializes in palliative care where she provides support for patients living with chronic and life limiting illnesses in the outpatient, inpatient and the home settings.  She has focused on several specific areas including hematopoietic blood and marrow transplant and advanced care planning for all patients with chronic and life limitingdisease. As a Consultant in Hospice in Palliative Medicine of Medicine at Mayo Clinic she collaborated with her hematology colleagues in an innovation study researching the roles of early palliative care in hematology malignancies and hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Dr. Roché-Green has several publications in peer-reviewed journals including The Journal of Palliative Medicine and she teaches extensively at many levels including peers at CME review courses as well as nurses, residents and fellows.   She serves as co-chair of a national committee with the National Marrow Donor Program focusing on improving patient education and support for patients receiving hematopoietic stem cell transplant.

• Progress in supportive care medicine.- Power of integrative medicine-Best of both worlds.- Palliative medicine for the transplant provider- Empowering the transplant team.- Transplant-related aches and pain issues- Recognition and management.- Transplant-related (non-pain) issues- Prevention, intervention and limitations.- Pre-transplant comorbidities: Recognition and management peri- and post- transplant?-  Graft-versus-host disease and quality of life: Can we actually make a difference?- Special aspects to ICU care-Is there an art to it?- Mental health: Assessment, treatment and outcomes- Spirituality and acknowledgment of cultural diversity- Who said it’s important?- Supportive care aspects in pediatric population.- Supportive care aspects in adolescents and young adults – Different or difficult?- Caregiver support strategies – Why should we care?- Advance care planning – Why we should not forget the future?- End of life, grief and bereavement- How can you help? - Self-care for the provider – Important? - Survivorship issues- Guidelines, challenges and future.