Amber Wollesen, MD

I received my medical training from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and graduated in 2003. I stayed on there for the 3 years of my internal medicine residency. In 2006, I was selected to be a Chief Resident. That was an important year for me. I discovered an interest in palliative medicine and got married to Wayne. In 2007, I ventured away from UMKC and joined a palliative medicine fellowship at Kansas City Hospice. Next year, I hope to work at a local hospital doing inpatient palliative care. My major palliative care interests are quality in palliative care and resident education.

Amy Clarkson, MD

I attended the University of Kansas for medical school and graduated in 2004. Family Medicine was an easy choice for residency and I completed 3 years with the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Kansas Hospital, finishing up my last year as a Chief Resident. After spending one day with the palliative care consult team, I knew I'd found my niche in medicine. I'm currently finishing a fellowship in palliative care with Kansas City Hospice and will join the physician group of that organization next year. Any free time not involved in medicine is spent with my lovely 16month old daughter and husband.

The views expressed on this blog are solely the opinions of its contributors. They in no way reflect the views of our employers or any other institutions with which we are affiliated. Nothing on this blog is meant to be taken as medical or any other type of professional advice.

We do not host any of our own videos on this site. We do utilize already posted videos and we do post photos, quotes, and lyrics. If you have any questions or concerns about any of the material posted, please contact us. If you have the copyright on any of the material posted and object to it being used, we would be happy to take it down from our site or give proper credit.

Thank you so much for visiting our blog. The Pallimed: Arts & Humanities blog is the second blog in the Pallimed family. As the name implies, our focus is a little different from our sister blog. Our aim is to explore how the arts and humanities influence and are influenced by topics in palliative care.

Our goal is not only to provide enjoyment for you, the readers, but also to have some practical uses in palliative care education, such as use of a movie clips or art in palliative care lectures. We will do this by choosing examples of art, music, cinema, literature, television, theatre or other media with themes related to palliative care (for example: end-of-life, chronic illness, ethics, grief). We will post a commentary about the work and its relationship to palliative medicine (this may be obvious).

Our target audience is anyone in the field of (or with an interest in) palliative care, medicine, the arts, or humanities. While some information may be palliative care specific and assume a familiarity with the field, we hope that those with medical and non-medical backgrounds alike will enjoy our writings.

Who is Pallimed:Arts & Humanities?

Amber Wollesen, MD

Amber(dot)wollesen(at)gmail(dot)com

Amy Clarkson, MD

Amylclarkson(at)gmail(dot)com

What are the arts and humanities?

We realize that art means something different to every person and culture. We generally think of the arts as the products of creative activity. Humanities are defined as "learning or literature concerned with the human culture". I think for the purpose of this blog, we will take a very broad interpretation to the definitions of arts and humanities. Any aspect of the human culture and it's creative activity are potential topics.

It’s pretty much at random. We write about things that are interesting to us within the scope of this blog (arts and humanities). If you have things that you find interesting and you would like us to write about (or you would like to write about) please contact us.

How often do you post?

Our aim will be to post once per week.

Does Pallimed get referral fees for any of the links?

Pallimed does not get any referral fees for any of the links we provide. We do not participate in commercial advertising and so we do not accept any fees for advertising. We are all doing this on our own time without reimbursement.

What is a Spoiler?

A Spoiler is a line or paragraph that gives away the end or key plot element of a movie. We know that not all of our readers will have seen the movies we review. For that reason, we will hide any spoilers and place an asterisk on either side so you know they're there. We will also warn you when a spoiler is coming. It will look something like this: Warning: Spoiler ahead. Highlight to Read. *Spoiler info here*. Just highlight the text in between the asterisks if you want to know the end of the movie. Or watch the movie first and come back to read what we have to say.

How can I share my opinion?

Feel free to comment on any post. Pallimed has a comment function (at the bottom of each post) that allows you to give us feedback on each post. Just click on the link at the end of each post. We will also entertain guest posts if they fit into our aims.

We understand that the topics we write about are very subjective. You may agree or disagree with our interpretations. We hope you share your views with us.