Symptom Management Service (SMS)

The Symptom Management Service (SMS), a pioneering program for outpatient symptom management in a cancer center setting, was founded by Michael W. Rabow, MD, a national expert in outpatient palliative care program development, service delivery, and research. The SMS is focused on the field of whole person care, which supports patients and their loved ones as they confront cancer and its attendant treatment. It addresses patient quality of life and management of distressing symptoms, irrespective of whether patients are receiving curative treatments or moving toward purely palliative treatment. The program's vision is to improve routine clinical care by offering patients world-class symptom management and state-of-the-art cancer treatment while supporting the patient's family during the process. Working with the patient’s cancer physicians, the SMS co-manages the care of the patient with complex issues of symptom distress, emotional strain and existential suffering. The multidisciplinary SMS team provides pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic management of physical symptoms such as pain, nausea and fatigue, and managing emotional pain including anxiety and depression, and help patients face the underlying challenges of maintaining hope, intimacy, and vitality in the face of challenging diagnoses and treatment decisions. Today, the SMS has emerged as a national model for outpatient palliative care with a  robust clinic-based program, rigorous data collection, and pioneering educational and quality improvement efforts.