Hunter Groninger serves as Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University, Director of the Section of Palliative Care at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, and Scientific Director for Palliative Care at the MedStar Health Research Institute. He grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts, completed his undergraduate degree at Princeton University and master’s degree at the University of Paris-Sorbonne in comparative and French literature. After completing his medical degree and training in internal medicine at the University of Virginia, Dr. Groninger completed a fellowship in hospice and palliative medicine at Capital Hospice in Washington, DC. Dr. Groninger is also a Master Facilitator with the Education for Palliative and End-of-Life Care (EPEC) Program at Northwestern University, a Faculty Affiliate in the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Medical Humanities at the University of Virginia, and a grant-funded investigator at the MedStar Health Research Institute. Some of his current studies include palliative care delivery in cardiovascular medicine, innovative symptom management strategies, language and word choice in complex communication, and the medical humanities. Select citations can be seen at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1FojgbSWk6Y5H/bibliography/public/ (new window)
“A Pilot Study to Understand the Role of Medical Humanities in Medical Education”
September 26th, 2022
Clark Pitcher, Arya Prasad, Daniel Marchalik, Hunter Groninger, Lakshmi Krishnan and Michael Pottash study the perception of the students enrolled in the Georgetown University Medical Humanities Initiative of the benefits of a medical humanities curriculum.…
“How to Address Sexuality and Intimacy with People Living with a Serious Illness”, Dr. Hunter Groninger and Anne Kelemen Write for the Center to Advance Palliative Care
June 13th, 2022
Dr. Hunter Groninger and Anne Kelemen address an area that is often overlooked in a routine palliative care assessment: the impact of serious illness on intimacy and sexuality…
“Now We Can All Hear You…”, Dr. Hunter Groninger Writes about Palliative Care Tele-Education for the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis on PallCHASE
September 22nd, 2021
Dr. Hunter Groninger describes his experience of pivoting from traditional in-person teaching to the virtual world, in the context of his teaching of primary palliative care skills to local clinicians providing humanitarian medical aid to the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.…
“Palliative Care Consultation and Effect on Length of Stay in a Tertiary-Level Neurological Intensive Care Unit”
August 19th, 2020
The team of researchers that includes Dr. Michael Pottash and Dr. Hunter Groninger investigated the characteristics and impact of palliative care consultation for patients in a neurological intensive care unit (ICU) at a large tertiary-care hospital.…
“The Impact of Non-Medical Reading on Clinician Burnout: A National Survey of Palliative Care Providers”
September 8th, 2019
The team of researchers that includes Dr. Daniel Marchalik and Dr. Hunter Groninger studies the impact of non-medical reading on burnout in hospice and palliative care physicians. They suggest that reading non-medical literature on a consistent basis may be associated with a significantly decreased likelihood of burnout.…
Dr. Daniel Marchalik and Dr. Hunter Groninger on Beyond Burnout–The Healing Power of Fiction
February 6th, 2019
On February 6 2019, Dr. Daniel Marchalik and Dr. Hunter Groninger spoke at the University of Virginia’s Medical Center Hour about emerging research on books’ benefits for doctors and trace their own experience with the Literature and Medicine Track at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.…
“When We Document End-of-Life Care, Words Still Matter”
September 21st, 2018
Dr. Hunter Groninger and Anne M. Kelemen highlight the findings of the study “Language Used by Health Care Professionals to Describe Dying at an Acute Care Hospital”, and how providers’ discomfort in employing clear, direct terms when talking about dying can have unintended consequences, such as miscommunication, and missed or delayed opportunities to engage in the grieving process.…
“Ambiguity in End-of-Life Care Terminology—What Do We Mean by ‘Comfort Care?'”
September 4th, 2018
Dr. Hunter Groninger and Anne M. Kelemen explore the ambiguity in the terminology associated with end-of-life care, highlighting the need to talk about what “comfort care” or “comfort measures” actually mean.…
“Failing Better: A New Paradigm of Care”
July 22nd, 2017
Dr. Hunter Groninger introduces a Heart Failure Reviews symposium issue that aims to call attention to the rapidly developing interface between heart failure and palliative care.…
“Integrating Spiritual Care into Palliative Consultation: A Case Study in Expanded Practice”
May 26th, 2017
Dr. Hunter Groninger and his co-authors describe the role of a palliative care chaplain embedded within the interdisciplinary palliative care team, demonstrating how the role of this palliative chaplain differs from that of a traditional hospital chaplain.…
“Poor Prognostication: Hidden Meanings in Word Choices”
April 21st, 2017
The absence of a standardised language to express prognostic information can be a barrier for providing realistic information to patients and their families. The team of researchers that includes Dr. Michael Pottash and Dr. Hunter Groninger surveyed a random sample of internal medicine attending physicians and residents to better determine perception of word choice related to documentation of patient prognosis and hospice eligibility in the medical record.…
