Cambia Health Foundation Funds OHSU Doernbecher’s First Pediatric Palliative Care Endowed Chair

Dr. Robert Macauley to serve as one of only three pediatric palliative care Endowed Chairs in the United States; Will lead efforts to enhance the quality of life for OHSU Doernbecher patients and families

Cambia Health Foundation today announced the appointment by OHSU of Robert Macauley, MD, FAAP, FAAHPM as the Medical Director and the Cambia Health Foundation Endowed Chair in Pediatric Palliative Care of OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital’s Bridges pediatric palliative care program. In this role, effective September 2017, Macauley will lead an interdisciplinary team of physicians, nurse practitioners, social workers, a nurse and a chaplain to expand services for patients and families living with serious illness.
 
In 2015, the Cambia Health Foundation granted $4 million to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation as part of the Knight Cancer Challenge and directed the funds to establish the hospital’s first pediatric palliative care endowed chair. Cambia Health Foundation has supported the advancement of palliative care since 2003, when it awarded its first grant to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation to support the hospital’s ground-breaking Bridges pediatric palliative care program. Cambia and its employees also donated an additional $1 million to the Knight Cancer Challenge in May of 2015.
 
“The Cambia Health Foundation is honored to have Dr. Macauley join the distinguished Bridges palliative care team at OHSU Doernbecher,” said Peggy Maguire, president and board chair, Cambia Health Foundation. “Dr. Macauley brings a wealth of experience to Oregon. He founded the pediatric palliative care team at the University of Vermont Children’s Hospital and has been actively involved in many educational and leadership roles in the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. We are thrilled that, in this new role, he will serve as a guiding force in the growing field of pediatric palliative care.”
 
Throughout Dr. Macauley’s distinguished career, he has led many efforts to expand the field of palliative care. He spent fifteen years on the faculty at the University of Vermont, where he directed both the Pediatric Advanced Care Team as well as the Department of Clinical Ethics.  Prior to that he worked as pediatric hospitalist at Stamford Hospital in Connecticut, a primary care pediatrician at Middlebury Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine in Middlebury, Vermont, and was Director of Pediatrics at Kuluva Hospital in Uganda. He was named as a distinguished educator of the University of Vermont Teaching Academy in 2015, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, on the hospice and palliative medicine test-writing committee of the American Board of Internal Medicine, and as Chair of the Committee on Bioethics of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
 
About Cambia Health Foundation
Based in Portland, Ore., Cambia Health Foundation is the corporate Foundation of Cambia Health Solutions, a total health solutions company dedicated to transforming the way people experience health care. Founded in 2007, Cambia Health Foundation awards grants in three program areas: Sojourns (Palliative Care Quality, Access and Awareness), Transforming Health Care and Children’s Behavioral Health. The Foundation has funded $47 million in grants to support these causes. Cambia Health Foundation’s investments in Sojourns advance patient- and family-centered care that optimizes quality of life for people with serious illness by anticipating, preventing and treating suffering. Learn more at www.cambiahealthfoundation.org, and follow us on Twitter: @CambiaHealthFdn.