About Me
Dr. Christian Sinclair is an Associate Professor in the Division of Palliative Medicine at the University of Kansas Health System, where he currently leads outpatient palliative care in the KU Cancer Center and heads the palliative care research group. In 2019, he was selected to direct a Care Connections program at the University of Kansas Cancer Center focused on improving the patient and caregiver experience through improved access to supportive care services.
His medical training began at the University of California, San Diego, which he completed in 2000. From there he and his wife, Kelly, went to North Carolina for 3 years for an Internal Medicine residency at Wake Forest. In 2004, he completed a hospice and palliative medicine fellowship at the Hospice and Palliative Care Center in Winston-Salem, NC.
Moving to Kansas City, he served for 8 years as an Associate Hospice Medical Director overseeing a 32-bed inpatient unit, leading the hospice and palliative medicine fellowship program in conjunction with the University of Kansas, while continuing to see palliative care consults in the hospital and on home visits. He has also worked for Gentiva Health Services as a National Hospice Medical Director overseeing 40 sites and 80 Hospice Medical Directors
Dr. Sinclair was the first chair and co-founder of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) professionals-in-training special interest group. He was elected to the AAHPM Board of Directors in 2009 and served for nine years and was the the president of AAHPM in 2016. In 2019, he received the Holman Distinguished Service Award from AAHPM.
In 2015, Dr. Sinclair co-founded the Kansas City Society of Palliative Medicine with Dr. Pam Harris. He later served as president of the society in 2018 and 2019. He currently serves as secretary.
Dr. Sinclair is passionate about health care professionals engaging the public through social media. Many in the field know him through his work as Editor-in-Chief of the website Pallimed in addition to his advocacy for the field on Facebook and Twitter. He is committed to mentoring peers and learners across professional backgrounds and throughout the country.
In 2018, he was named the first Associate Editor of Social Media for the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. Most recently, he was part of the National Academy of Medicine's Institute of Medicine’s committee who published the report "Dying in America: Improving Quality and Honoring Individual Preferences Near the End of Life" in 2014 and served on the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Roundtable on Quality Care For People with Serious Illness from 2015-2019.