Murphy Receives National Honors for Palliative Care Research February 18, 2025 A Good Samaritan family medicine resident received top honors at the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine national conference in Denver earlier this year, for a research project on the impact of palliative care on hospitalization rates and quality care. Mackenzie Murphy, DO, a third-year family medicine resident, received the 2025 Annual Assembly Early Career/Professionals in Training Quality Improvement Poster Award for the research, which was conducted in collaboration with palliative care medical director Kelsey Terland, MD, and a team of health care professionals. The study analyzed patient data from 2022-2023. Results showed that patients receiving outpatient palliative care at Samaritan experienced fewer hospitalizations, were more likely to enroll in hospice, and were less likely to die in hospital settings compared to a matched control group. “Our findings demonstrate that outpatient palliative care services save the health care system money while improving patient quality of life by preventing unwanted hospitalizations and in-hospital deaths,” Dr. Murphy said. The research team included Darian Pike, MBA, Zoe Herrera, MPH, and Brandon Kowalski, MSc. Dr. Murphy, who hails from Yamhill, Ore., was inspired to pursue medicine by his parents — an oncology nurse mother and a retired horticulturalist father. “Through my mother’s empathy, strength and compassion to always do right by her patients, and my father’s patience, gentleness and passion for growth, I found a love for medicine,” Dr. Murphy said. A graduate of College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific – Northwest, Dr. Murphy hopes the study’s results will encourage expansion of Samaritan’s Palliative Care Community-Based program. “Currently, we only have outpatient services in Lincoln and Linn Counties, and our patient population in Benton County cannot take advantage of these services,” he said. When not practicing medicine, Dr. Murphy, who is a former collegiate soccer athlete, pursues landscape and portrait photography, enjoys running and supports the Portland Timbers and Thorns soccer teams.
