Lynn Bunch O'Neill, MD

Lynn O'Neill is a palliative medicine physician who provides inpatient and outpatient palliative medicine consultation at the Atlanta VA Medical Center, and inpatient consultation at Emory University Hospital and Emory University Hospital-Midtown. In her role as Associate Director of the Emory Palliative Care Center, she is responsible for all education activities of the Center which encompasses the palliative care services at all 4 Emory hospitals, the Emory Clinic, and affiliate hospitals (Grady and the VAMC) and also assists in the palliative care clinical operations of those sites.  In addition, she is the Associate Program Director for the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship at Emory University and Associate Professor of the Emory University School of Medicine. A native of Tallahassee, Florida, Dr. O'Neill is a 1998 graduate of Emory College and a 2002 graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She completed a residency in internal medicine at University of Alabama Hospitals in Birmingham followed by fellowships in palliative care and geriatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. O'Neill held faculty positions at both Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Duke University prior to being recruited to return to her Emory roots in 2014. Dr. O'Neill is a national leader in communication skills training, having launched Geritalk, a communication skills training program for geriatrics and palliative medicine clinicians, in 2009. Dr. O'Neill has served as a primary facilitator at her own institutions for many communication skills training courses, with learners including physicians in training, nurse practitioners, nurses, occupational and physical therapists, and speech pathologists. In addition, she is a faculty member of the Academy of Communication in Healthcare, having completed a four-year intensive facilitator training program through this organization. Dr. O'Neill received a Geriatric Academic Career Award from 2007-2010, awarded by the Health Resources and Services Administration, which supported her faculty development as a communication skills expert and the development of the Geritalk program. In 2015, Dr. O'Neill was recognized as one of the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Inspirational Leaders Under 40 by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.