Thomas J. Smith, MD, FACP, FASCO, FAAHPM is an oncologist and palliative care specialist with a lifelong interest in better symptom management 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 of the Johns Hopkins venues. The palliative care consult service sees over 1,500 new patients a year, and a research agenda with “Scrambler Therapy” for chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder pain, and central pain; palliative care for patients on Phase I drug trials, palliative care for patients undergoing Whipple procedures, and others. With Patrick Coyne, MSN, ACHPN, ACNS-BC, FAAN, FPCN, and others, he helped start the Thomas Palliative Care Unit and Program at VCU-MCV in the late 1990s.
Dr. Smith has been recognized in “Best Doctors in America” for many years and is a Fellow in the American College of Physician, the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He received the American Cancer Society Trish Greene Quality of Life Award for “outstanding research that benefits cancer patients and their families,” and in 2018 was recognized as a “Visionary in Palliative Care” by AAHPM. In 2019 he received the Project on Death in America Palliative Medicine National Leadership Award, and the Walther Cancer Foundation-endowed ASCO award for excellence in palliative and supportive care in oncology. He has published over 350 articles, editorials and reviews, and helps write the test questions for the ABIM hospice and palliative medicine exam.