Chief Medical Officer

Martha L. Twaddle, MD, FACP, FAAHPM

A nationally recognized expert in hospice and palliative medicine, Dr. Twaddle has served as a medical director of Midwest Palliative & Hospice CareCenter since 1989 and became chief medical officer of the organization in 2004. In 2001, she created and helped establish a collaborative fellowship program, now the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Integrated Fellowship. She guided the program to formal recognition and accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (2009).

In 2011, Dr. Twaddle was appointed to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education standing panel for accreditation appeals in the specialty of family medicine—hospice and palliative medicine. She also serves on the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) Medical Directors Curriculum and Leadership committees as well as previously on their Education & Training and Strategic Coordinating committees. Dr. Twaddle is a member of the Clinical Advisory Board of the Cancer Wellness Center in Northbrook, Illinois, one of the Editorial Board members of the Journal of Pain & and Symptom Management, and peer reviewer for Journal of Palliative Medicine as well as for Palliative Medicine. Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) appointed Dr. Twaddle to his Health Policy Advisory Board in 2011.

Dr. Twaddle served on the Advisory Board and on the Steering Committee and Writing Committee for the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care, which published "Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care" in 2004. Dr. Twaddle recently was on the Advisory Board of the Medicare Health Support Program and on the Palliative Care Steering Committee for the University HealthSystem Consortium. In 2008, Dr. Twaddle was elected and served a two-year term on the Board of Directors of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). She also served on the NHPCO Public Policy Committee from 2003 to 2005 and on the National Institutes of Health Pain and Palliative Care Advisory Board from 2001 to 2003.

Dr. Twaddle's contributions to advancing the field of hospice and palliative medicine have been significant, thus she has been recognized with the following academic distinctions:

• Associate Program Director, Hospice and Palliative Medicine Integrated Fellowship, Rush University Medical Center (January 2010 – present); Program Director (2001 – present)
• Fellow, The Institute of Medicine of Chicago (invited in 2007)
• Associate Professor of Medicine, Rush Medical College (2006 – present)
• Lecturer, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (2006 – present)
• Associate Member, Lurie Cancer Center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital (2005 – present)
• Fellow, AAHPM (2002 – present)
• Fellow, American College of Physicians (2001 – present)
• Master Facilitator, Education for Physicians on End-of-Life Care Project (1999 – present)
• Chair, Ethics Committee, Rush North Shore Medical Center (now Skokie Hospital) (2003 – 2010)
• Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (1998 – 2006)
• President, AAHPM (2002 –2003)

In 2006, Dr. Twaddle was honored in the naming of the first Midwest Palliative & Hospice CareCenter endowed chair, the Martha L. Twaddle, MD, Chair of Palliative Medicine. Dr. Twaddle is the first physician to occupy the chair, which is the highest honor the organization can bestow upon a physician. She was the inaugural recipient of the AAHPM Josefina B. Magno Distinguished Hospice Physician Award in 2005 and received the Stephen A. Weisman Humanitarian Award for Cancer Care in 2001 from the Cancer Wellness Center. Dr. Twaddle also was the recipient of a 2008 Outstanding Alumni Award from the Purdue University College of Science.

After graduating summa cum laude from Purdue University, Dr. Twaddle received her medical degree from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, and completed a residency in internal medicine through Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine at Evanston Hospital, where she was also chief resident. She was certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in September 1988 and the American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine in July 1999 and 2006.

Dr. Twaddle is active in research, speaks regularly to local and national groups, and has been published extensively in peer-reviewed articles and other publications on the importance and benefits of hospice and palliative medicine. She is a senior attending physician at the hospitals of NorthShore University HealthSystems (Evanston, Glenbrook, Highland Park and Skokie) and on the attending staff at Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital, Northwest Community Hospital and Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

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