Dr. Sandra Sacks, Vice Chair of ASA’s Committee on Palliative Care and contributor to ASA Monitor, speaks to Dr. Adam Striker about the value of palliative care. Listen in as they discuss common misconceptions, tactics for giving patients a voice, and the growing overlap between anesthesia and palliative care. Recorded April 2021.
Sandra Sacks, MD, MEd, is a cancer pain specialist at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and the Vice Chair of the ASA Committee of Palliative Care. Dr. Sacks’ goal is to treat the whole person and advocates for an interdisciplinary team approach to minimize symptom burden and improve the quality of lives of cancer patients and their families. She seeks to broaden the exposure of palliative care within anesthesiology and engage in avenues to support further collaboration between the two specialties.
Dr. Sacks received her medical degree from Boston University. After completing her residency in anesthesiology at Stanford University, she went on to pursue further sub-specialization training in both interventional pain medicine and palliative medicine. Dr. Sacks has written extensively on palliative care and pain medicine, and presented at several national meetings.
Adam Striker, MD, FASA, is currently Chair of the ASA Committee on Communications, and is the series editor for ASA’s Central Line podcast series. He is an Associate Professor and serves as staff anesthesiologist in the Division of Cardiac Anesthesia at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and in the Division of Pediatric Anesthesia at Kentucky Children’s Hospital as part of the Joint Congenital Heart Care Program. He received his undergraduate degree in engineering from Purdue University and his medical degree from Indiana University. He completed his pediatric anesthesiology fellowship at Northwestern University.
Date of last update: October 28, 2024