Sharon Watanabe, MD
Pronouns: she, her, hers
Contact
Professor, Division of Palliative Care Medicine, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Oncology Dept
- watanabe@ualberta.ca
- Phone
- (780) 432-8266
- Address
-
Cross Cancer Institute
11560 University AvenueEdmonton ABT6G 1Z2
Overview
Area of Study / Keywords
About
Sharon Watanabe graduated from McGill University in 1988. After training in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology at the University of Toronto, she completed a fellowship in Palliative Care Medicine at the University of Alberta. She became a staff physician in the Tertiary Palliative Care Unit at the Grey Nuns Community Hospital, and later the Unit's Director. She is currently Director of the Department of Symptom Control and Palliative Care at the Cross Cancer Institute, and of the Division of Palliative Care Medicine in the Department of Oncology.Research
Symptom assessment: The Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) is a self-report tool for symptom intensity. It was introduced in 1991 and has since undergone widespread adoption nationally and internationally for clinical, research and administrative purposes.
Palliative care consultation by telehealth: Palliative and supportive care services are readily accessible to cancer patients residing in urban areas, but not consistently available in rural and remote areas.
Integration of palliative care in oncology: Randomized controlled trials have demonstrated improved quality of life and other outcomes for patients with advanced cancer who receive palliative care early in the disease trajectory. Dr. Watanabe and colleagues have studied patterns of palliative care consultation at the Cross Cancer Institute, and determined that a minority of patients with advanced disease received specialist palliative care, generally late in the illness, with variation according to demographic and clinical factors. They also found that specialist palliative care involvement is associated with lower frequency of aggressive care at the end of life. Dr. Watanabe is a co-investigator in the Palliative Care Early and Systematic project, which is testing a pathway for an early palliative approach to care for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.
Featured Publications
Cara Robertson; Sharon M. Watanabe; Aynharan Sinnarajah; Alexei Potapov; Viane Faily; Yoko Tarumi; Vickie E. Baracos
Current Oncology. 2023 January; 10.3390/curroncol30010068
Characterizing the financial burden of advanced cancer: analysis of financial effects data from people living with advanced colorectal cancer.
Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer Annual Meeting, Support Care Cancer 2022; 30 (Suppl 1):S129. 2022 June;
The PACES Study: A controlled before and after pragmatic trial of a cancer clinic-based intervention to increase early referral to specialist palliative care
2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, J Clin Oncol 2022; 40(suppl 16; abstr 6501). 2022 June;
Fairchild A., Hill J., Alhumaid M., Rau A., Ghosh S., Le A., Watanabe S.M.
Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences. 2022 February; 53 (2):S51-S55 10.1016/j.jmir.2022.01.003
Baracos VE, Watanabe SM, Fearon KCH
Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine, 6th edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2018. 2021 September; n/a
Sellick M, Watanabe SM, Tarumi Y
Palliative Medicine: A Case-Based Manual, 4th EditionOxford: Oxford University Press 2019. 2021 September; n/a
Watanabe, S.M.; Faily, V.; Mawani, A.; Huot, A.; Tarumi, Y.; Potapov, A.; Fassbender, K.; Fairchild, A.; Joy, A.A.; King, K.M. et al.
The Oncologist. 2020 June; 10.1634/theoncologist.2019-0384
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