Joel S. Policzer, MD, FACP, FAAHPM, has been named vice president and national medical director of VITAS Innovative Hospice Care(r).

With 20 years’ experience as a team physician, inpatient hospice unit medical director, VITAS Miami-Dade County program medical director, and then VITAS Broward County program senior medical director, Dr. Policzer brings a wealth of experience and a hands-on perspective to his national role as an advocate for patients, families and hospice team members.

Dr. Policzer is board certified in hospice and palliative medicine, internal medicine, hematology and medical oncology and was a charter member of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. In addition, he is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, a member of the American Medical Association, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He was one of three co-editors of 20 Common Problems in End-of-Life Care, the definitive text on hospice and palliative medicine on which 19 VITAS experts collaborated. Dr. Policzer was presented with VITAS’ Physician Caregiver of the Year Award in 1996 and twice named to the VITAS Leadership Council.

Dr. Policzer has dedicated much of his career to the study and practice of palliative care. He has developed teaching materials and courses in palliative medicine and hospice care at the Nova-Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine and the University of Miami, School of Medicine. He has also developed a curriculum in “End-of-Life Care and Jewish Law” and gives a yearly seminar to senior rabbinic students at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, and has presented this as well to the Department of Internal Medicine, Hadassah Hospital, Mt. Scopus Campus, in Jerusalem.

Dr. Policzer received his medical education at the University of Brussels, Belgium, and the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, and completed his residency in internal medicine at the Albany Medical College Hospitals, Albany, New York. He completed fellowships in hematology at the Center for Blood Diseases and medical oncology at the Comprehensive Cancer Center, both located at the University of Miami, School of Medicine. Concurrent to his work with VITAS, Dr. Policzer was in the private practice of hematology and oncology for 17 years in Plantation, Florida.