
About the Program
At AdventHealth’s HPM Fellowship you will find a location rich with varied opportunities and potential for personal growth. We are dedicated to providing you with tools to become excellent clinicians, leaders, and advocates for our patients no matter which area of HPM you choose to focus.

Training Sites
As one of the largest healthcare systems in the US, we have plenty of opportunities for you to grow with us after fellowship. AdventHealth is a faith-based organization, but we are welcoming of providers of all beliefs. I believe part of our team’s strength is our diversity.
The multidisciplinary environment of AdventHealth Orlando campus serves as the major training site for the fellowship with additional teaching sites to include AdventHealth Winter Park, AdventHealth Hospice Care Central Florida, and various outpatient geriatric and long-term care facilities. Training at the various locations of AdventHealth exposes our fellows to a broad and diverse patient base.
AdventHealth Orlando, is a 2,247-bed faith-based non-profit, tertiary, research, and academic medical center located in Orlando, Florida. It serves as a community hospital for Greater Orlando and a major tertiary referral facility for much of the Southeast, Caribbean, and South America.
AdventHealth Orlando is also home to multiple GME training programs such as internal medicine, general surgery and colon and rectal surgery fellowship and hosts rotating medical students from Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Florida State University School of Medicine, and Nova Southeastern University College of Medicine.
Faculty of the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship

Jeannette Rosales-Zincone, MD
Program Director

Michelle Covington, MD
Hospice Rotation Director

Eric Moore, MD, MBA
Hospice Faculty

Alex Lavigne, DO
Palliative Care Clinic Leader

Blaine Pitts, MD
Pediatric Rotation Director

M. Rick Stone, DO
Palliative Care Faculty
Current Fellows
Ferdinand Melendez-Padillla, MD
Residency: Family Medicine - Tidelands Health MUSC, Myrtle Beach, SC
Medical School: San Juan Bautista School of Medicine, Caguas, Puerto Rico
Arnold Paulo, DO
Residency: Internal Medicine - Nazareth Hospital, Philadelphia, PA
Medical School: Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Philadelphia, PA

Wilson Velez Perez, MD
PGY-4

Darnelle Ramirez, DO
PGY-4
Alumni

Catalina Soto, MD
Currently Practicing: Halifax Health Hospice in Orlando, FL and Halifax Medical Center Palliative Care Team in Daytona Beach, FL

Jeannette Rosales- Zincone, MD
Currently Practicing: AdventHealth Orlando Palliative Care

M. Rick Stone, DO
Currently Practicing: AdventHealth Orlando Palliative Care

Farhana Chowdhury, MD
Currently Practicing: AdventHealth Orlando Palliative Care

Yuliya Zamota, DO
Currently Practicing: Bayfront Health, St. Petersburg, FL
Curriculum
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt
The AdventHealth Orlando Campus will be the cornerstone of your education because it provides a central collection of the sickest patients with challenging symptoms and most complex treatment options, while providing you the ease of less travel.
- Rotations
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Fellow Year 1
- Inpatient Palliative Care: Consults and Palliative Care Unite (PC)5 Blocks
- Hospice: Inpatient Unit and Home Visits (Hosp)3 Blocks
- Pediatrics (Peds)1 Block
- Long Term Care (LTC)1 Block
- Advanced Pain and Heart Failure (Pain/HF)1 Block
- Oncology and Critical Care (Onc/CC)1 Block
- Elective
- Palliative Care Consult
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Much of your education will be at AdventHealth Orlando where you can experience the dilemmas of modern medicine with a dedicated team including physicians, social workers, and chaplains. You will have the opportunity to work on a consult service with disease areas ranging from cancer, dementia, heart failure, lung disease, and cirrhosis amongst others. You will also have time at the AdventHealth Winter Park campus, which provides the experience of practicing in a community hospital.
- Hospice
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Since 1990, AdventHealth Hospice Care Central Florida (formerly known as Hospice of the Comforter) has provided end-of-life care and support to patients and their families throughout Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties. With care that is focused on comfort and quality of life, our services enable patients to live their lives to the fullest, surrounded by loved ones so that they might meet death with a sense of dignity—and so those left living may find peace and solace. AdventHealth Hospice Care’s campus is in Altamonte Springs, Florida, which includes a free-standing inpatient hospice unit with 16 private suites, as well as a 15-bed inpatient hospice unit on the campus of AdventHealth Orlando. Outside of your dedicated time with hospice you will also spend time with hospice during your Long-term Care and Pediatric experience to understand the benefits of HPM at all stages of life. You also will spend time with the home care team as well as at two of their state-of-the-art Inpatient Units, one of which is conveniently located on the Orlando Campus.
- Palliative Care Clinic
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Our Palliative Care clinic experience includes a dynamic team embedded within the Cancer Institute. The fellows work a half day a week for half the year.
- Pediatrics
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An experience with interdisciplinary team of providers and several physicians, Dr. Blaine Pitts helps lead the only comprehensive pediatric PC program in Central Florida. We provide a safe experience unique to each fellow’s comfort level with pediatric care.
- Long-term Care
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This rotation will focus on treating the seriously-ill in the highly regulated area of nursing homes. You will team up with the Geriatric Fellowship team. The rotation will include experiences in the Geriatric clinic and care at the Mayflower and the Gardens at DePugh, which are within 3.5miles of the Orlando campus. The Mayflower is a Continuing Care Retirement Community, which provides care ranging from independent living to skilled nursing. The Gardens at DePugh is a community SNF with a five-star CMMS rating. Part of you time will be spent from the perspective of primary physician in the NH and of the hospice team visiting the nursing home.
- Oncology
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The AdventHealth Cancer Institute is a Center of Excellence that sees over 4,000 cases per year. You will get the opportunity to work hand in hand with the oncology team, as well as experience radiation oncology and gynecologic oncology. Palliative Care, often termed Supportive Oncology, is a crucial part in extraordinary cancer care.
- Quality Improvement and Research
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You will have an opportunity to work on your own quality improvement project and submit a poster or presentation for the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Annual Assembly. Locally you have the annual AdventHealth GME presentation day to submit to as well. This integrated research experience will utilize the established GME department’s research support team., which has been successful at winning several awards within the medicine, surgery, and radiology departments.
- Pain Clinic / Interventional / Addiction Medicine
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Unfortunately, those with substance use disorder also get serious illness. You will have the opportunity to learn best practice for safe care from our local substance use specialists. Especially during a time of an opioid epidemic and higher scrutiny, you want to have the tools to advocate for your pain patients.
- Advanced Heart Failure/ Transplant / LVAD
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You will have the opportunity to work with the AdventHealth Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute where you will understand better the patient experience and treatment options of LVAD, transplant, and ECMO through the perspective of the cardiovascular team and palliative team.
- Clinical Ethics
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This will be integrated throughout your year and be led by bioethicist Dr. Dennis DeLeon. You will learn basic principle while applying them to real life with the ethics team as well as fascinating case studies.
- Didactics Activities
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- HPM Grand rounds (weekly)
- Journal Club (quarterly)
- Case Review (quarterly)
- Research Seminar (monthly)
- Physician Wellness (6 weeks)
- AdventHealth Biomedical Ethics Meeting (monthly)
- Lecture Topics
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Fellows will attend lectures provided by Hospice and Palliative Medicine Faculty and other physician leaders on multiple topics including:
- Pathophysiology of pain and other symptoms
- Pharmacology of analgesics
- Pharmacological and non-Pharmacological management of pain and other symptoms
- Interventional pain medicine procedures
- Hospice
- Oncology
- Cardiology
- Neurology
- Critical Care
- Geriatrics
- Pediatric Palliative Care
- Clinical Ethics
- Prognostication
- Team Dynamics in the IDT
- Communication
- Family Care
- Spiritual Care
- Withholding and withdrawing life sustaining treatment
- Grief, loss and bereavement
- Quality Measures in Palliative Care
Program Information
- Research
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Residents, fellows, and faculty involved in required GME scholarly activities receive guidance from the Center for Academic Research Excellence (CARE) through the Clinical Academic Research team, comprised of an Academic Research Mentor, a Project Coordinator, and a Regulatory Coordinator. In addition, the center includes a group of biostatisticians, a health economist, and a medical editor.
CARE assists residents, fellows, and faculty with all types of scholarly activities (case studies, QI projects and research studies), from study design and protocol development, to data analysis and poster, presentation or manuscript preparation.
- Eligibility
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Applicants who have completed (or will complete) an ACGME approved residency in one of the following disciplines are eligible to apply:
- Internal Medicine
- Emergency Medicine
- Family Medicine
- Anesthesiology
- Psychiatry
- Neurology
- Obstetrics and Gynecology
- Pediatrics
- Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
- Radiation Oncology
- Surgery
- For international medical graduates, verification of Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) certification.
- Possess or be eligible for Florida Medical Licensure and DEA registration, along with AdventHealth Orlando Medical Staff privileges. These licensures are required before the anticipated date of matriculation.
- Be able to abide by the rules of the AdventHealth Orlando Graduate Medical Education Department and AdventHealth Orlando.
- Evidence of aptitude and interest in hospice and palliative care during residency training and/or practice with definite plans to include hospice and palliative care in the practice of medicine upon the completion of the fellowship program.
- Excellent academic and clinical performance in residency training defined on the basis of standardized examination scores and clinical evaluations.
- Excellent leadership skills demonstrated in residency training or practice.
- Benefits
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We’ll Take Care of You
Education Allowance
Fellows will receive up to 5 days of paid leave to attend and present at conferences with CME expenses reimbursed up to $1500.
Salaries (Effective Academic Year 2022 - 2023):
PGY 4 - $63,000
PGY 5 - $65,152
PGY 6 - $68,392
PGY 7 - $71,610
Professional Fees
Florida State Medical License and DEA license fees will be covered by the program. The cost of certification classes, such as ACLS, are covered as necessary for meeting program requirements.

Join Our Team
Our HPM Fellowship program participates in the NRMP Match and applicants will need to apply through the ERAS website starting in July. AdventHealth follows AAMC guidelines (AAMC Interview Guidance for the 2022-2023 Residency Cycle ) so interviews will be held virtually via Microsoft Teams, from September through November.

Contact Information
Karen Gonzalez
Fellowship Coordinator