The Palliative Care team at Boston Medical Center (BMC) offers specialized, personalized support for patients and their families facing serious or life-threatening illnesses. Whether patients are experiencing physical or emotional strain during a hospital stay or navigating complex care decisions, our goal is to enhance quality of life at any stage of illness.
Use the contact information below or page #0179 to reach the Palliative Care team.
What We Do
Where We Work
Location and Contact
Crosstown Center
Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Our Team
Rachel Abelman, LCSW
Social Worker
Rachel Abelman, LCSW is a social worker on the palliative care team. Rachel started her social work career working with children and adolescents in various mental health programs for many years before switching to adult medical social work at BMC in 2019. As a social worker at BMC, she worked for 5 years on the renal and family medicine floor and moved to the palliative care team in 2024. Rachel is passionate about working with vulnerable populations and strives to deliver compassionate care and advocate for the needs of her patients.
Hannah Coyne
Chaplain
Hannah, a chaplain with the team, completed her Bachelors at Georgetown University and her Masters in Pastoral Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, BC. She is a board-certified chaplain with a specialty Palliative Care and Hospice Advanced Certification. She is drawn to palliative care in particular to attend to the meaning-making and emotional nuances of a patient and family’s journey. Outside of work, she loves to travel, read, and enjoy art exhibits.
Amy Cann, BS
Program Manager
Prior to joining the Palliative Care team, Amy worked in the BMC HemOnc clinic for 4 years as a patient navigator. With a strong focus on addressing social determinants of health, she also built strong lasting relationships with her providers, patients and families. While working with the patients she supported, Amy was drawn to providing a strong supportive presence as well as having deeper conversations. This was a natural transition to Palliative Care.
Amy provides education to patients and families about palliative care and the spectrum of support it can provide as well as combines her skills of navigation in identifying barriers to care, while diving deeper and helping patients assess what’s most important to them. Working collaboratively with inpatient and outpatient programs has been helpful for connecting patients who identify support needs early on.
In addition to Amy’s clinical work, she manages all of the administrative needs for the Palliative Medicine Unit as well as program development of both the ambulatory palliative care clinic and the new home based palliative care program.
Inpatient
- Elizabeth Bowers, DNP
- Christina DeFusco, NP
- Kristina Moller, MD
- Kelly Vitale, MD
Home-Based
- Nicole DePace, NP
Ambulatory
- Dorothy Wisdom, NP