Lori A. Spoozak, MD, MHS, FACOG

Professional Background

Lori Spoozak, MD, MHS, FACOG, FACS is deeply committed to leveraging her privilege as a physician to serve women and to promote women’s health, whether it is in her clinical practice, as an educator, as a researcher or in my administrative and leadership roles. In her clinical practice, she is a gynecologic oncologist and palliative medicine physician. She completed a second fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine because of the severe distress she witnessed in women undergoing treatment for gynecologic cancer. It became her goal to provide high quality clinical care to women with gynecologic cancers throughout the trajectory of their illness, not just to treat the disease, but to promote resilience in all domains of care. She completed her undergraduate bachelor of arts in Theatre at the State University of New York in Albany, New York. She went on to Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut where she completed both a doctorate of medicine and a master of health science. She completed postdoctoral training first as an intern and resident at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University Medical Center in New York in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, New York and then as a clinical fellow at Montefiore Medical Center-Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York, in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology. She also completed clinical fellow training in Palliative Medicine and Hospice in the Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York. She is currently an Associate Professor and Program Director of the Gynecologic Oncology Fellowship at the University of Kansas.

• BA, Theatre, University at Albany- State University of New York , Albany, NY
• MD, Doctor of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT
• Other, Clinical Research, Yale University, New Haven , CT
• Internship, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Columbia University School of Medicine- New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY
• Residency, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Columbia University School of Medicine- New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY
• Clinical Fellowship, Gynecologic Oncology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine- Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY
• Clinical Fellowship, Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai , New York, NY

• Medical License, Kansas State Board of Healing Arts
• Medical License, Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts
• Specialty Board Certification, American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology- Obstetrics and Gynecology Board Certification
• Subspecialty Board Certification, American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology- Gynecologic Oncology Board Certification
• Subspecialty Board Certification, American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology- Hospice and Palliative Medicine Board Certification

• American College of Surgeons, Member, 2018 - Present
• American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Member, 2016 - Present
• American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Member, 2008 - 2015

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Research

Overview

I am committed to research collaboration, both in Gynecologic Oncology and in Palliative Medicine. I am most interested in the advancement of research at the intersection of palliative medicine and oncology. I am a member of the Palliative Care Research Cooperative Group and volunteer for organizational activities such as grant review. As a PCRC member, we applied for and were accepted to be a designated site for the largest interventional palliative care study ever performed, the REACH-PC Study: Comparative Effectiveness of Early Integrated Telehealth versus In-Person Palliative Care for Patients with Advanced Lung Cancer, a Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute Grant. As the Site Principal Investigator, I aim to increase my knowledge of research administration, additionally become savvy in state-of-the-art patient care technologies, and consider how to apply these technologies to our patients in rural settings.

Additionally, my education research is focused on palliative medicine training for surgical specialists. We received a KUMC Department of OBGYN Interdepartmental Research Grant to fund qualitative research entitled, "Dual Certification in Hospice and Palliative Medicine and Surgical Specialties." I am mentoring Dr. Chelsea Salyer gynecologic oncology fellow, with Dr. Joanna Brooks.

We were awarded a service grant to establish the Woman to Woman OCRA Peer Mentoring Program at the KUCC. While we successfully administered the service component of this grant including establishing two program coordinators, training 16 mentors, and creating matches, I have also mentored a medical student Hannah Moran MS2, in collaboration with Dr. Joanna Brooks, to create a qualitative research protocol to assess the strengths and efficacy of this novel peer to peer mentoring program.

Additionally, as a gynecologic oncologist I actively participate in our Gynecologic Oncology Disease Working Group and support our clinical trials program by recruiting and enrolling patients.

• Spoozak, L, Gotman, N, Smith, M., V, Belanger, K, Yonkers, K., A. 2009. Evaluation of a social support measure that may indicate risk of depression during pregnancy.. Journal of affective disorders, 114 (1-3), 216-23
• Spoozak, L, Lewin, S., N, Burke, W., M, Deutsch, I, Sun, X, Herzog, T., J, Wright, J., D. 2012. Microinvasive adenocarcinoma of the cervix.. American journal of obstetrics and gynecology, 206 (1), 80.e1-6
• Nevadunsky, N., S, Spoozak, L, Gordon, S, Rivera, E, Harris, K, Goldberg, G., L. 2013. End-of-life care of women with gynecologic malignancies: a pilot study.. International journal of gynecological cancer : official journal of the International Gynecological Cancer Society, 23 (3), 546-52
• Spoozak, L, Seow, H, Liu, Y, Wright, J, Barbera, L. 2013. Performance status and symptom scores of women with gynecologic cancer at the end of life.. International journal of gynecological cancer : official journal of the International Gynecological Cancer Society, 23 (5), 971-8
• Eskander, R., N, Osann, K, Dickson, E, Holman, L., L, Rauh-Hain, J., A, Spoozak, L, Wu, E, Krill, L, Fader, A., N, Tewari, K., S. 2014. Assessment of palliative care training in gynecologic oncology: a gynecologic oncology fellow research network study.. Gynecologic oncology, 134 (2), 379-84
• Nevadunsky, N., S, Gordon, S, Spoozak, L, Van Arsdale, A, Hou, Y, Klobocista, M, Eti, S, Rapkin, B, Goldberg, G., L. 2014. The role and timing of palliative medicine consultation for women with gynecologic malignancies: association with end of life interventions and direct hospital costs.. Gynecologic oncology, 132 (1), 3-7
• Nevadunsky, N., S, Van Arsdale, A, Strickler, H., D, Spoozak, L., A, Moadel, A, Kaur, G, Girda, E, Goldberg, G., L, Einstein, M., H. 2015. Association Between Statin Use and Endometrial Cancer Survival.. Obstetrics and gynecology, 126 (1), 144-50
• Spoozak, Lori, Scarborough, Beth. 2019. Palliative Care
• Spoozak, L., A. 2019. I'm Going to Be So Sad When Nancy Hammond Dies.. Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, 37 (36), 3556-3557