Harry J. Duffey Family Professor of Palliative Medicine and
Director of Palliative Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Professor of Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center

Training

University of Akron, B.S., summa cum laude 1971-74
Yale University School of Medicine, M.D. cum laude 1974-79
Yale University School of Organization and Management (core curriculum, one year) 1977-78
Special Visiting Fellow, National Cancer Center Biological Response Modifiers Program, Frederick, MD 1986
Virginia Commonwealth University Fellowship in Hematology/Oncology 1982-87
Project on Death in America Faculty Scholar, 1995-98

Current position

Professor of Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center of Johns Hopkins, and the Harry J. Duffey Family Professor of Palliative Medicine, and Director of Palliative Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD

Dr. Smith is a medical oncologist and palliative care specialist with a lifelong interest in better symptom management, open and accurate communication, and improving access to high quality affordable care. He is the Director of Palliative Medicine for Johns Hopkins Medicine, charged with integrating palliative care into all the Johns Hopkins venues. The hospital wide PC consult service sees over 1500 patients a year, runs a 6-bed inpatient PC unit, and has a growing research agenda with “Scrambler Therapy” for pain, decision aids, integrated palliative care for patients on Phase I drug trials, and communication about serious illness.
Dr. Smith has a long track record of starting innovative programs with concurrent evaluation of their impact on care and costs, including the Virginia Rural Cancer Outreach Program, the Thomas Palliative Care Program, the Virginia Initiative on Palliative Care, and the Rural Palliative Care Program, among others. He attends on the Longcope Service of the Osler Medical Housestaff training program as well as in Palliative Care.
Dr. Smith received the national Humanism in Medicine Award in 2000, and in 2000 and 2006 was voted the Distinguished Clinician on the VCU-MCV Faculty. He has been recognized in “Best Doctors in America” for many years. He is a Fellow in the American College of Physician, the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. In 2012 Bruce Hillner and he received the ABIM “Professionalism” Price for their NEJM article “Bending the Cost Curve in Cancer Care” and leading the “Choosing Wisely” initiatives for AAHPM and ASCO.
He is a 2010 ACS grantee to study the absorption of "ABH" gel as used for nausea; his other funded research includes an RO1 for a randomized trial of PC versus usual care for Phase I cancer patients, PC for pancreas cancer patients, patient-decision aids, and "scrambler" therapy for pain.