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Laura C Hanson, MD, MPH, is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member, Co-Director of the UNC Palliative Care Program, and Professor in Geriatric Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

MD, MPH
Director, UNC Palliative Care Program; Professor, Geriatric Medicine
UNC-Chapel Hill
Cancer Prevention and Control

Area of interest

Dr. Hanson is a Professor in the Department of Medicine. She graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1986, and trained in Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She completed fellowships in Geriatric Medicine and in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of North Carolina. In 1991 she was awarded an MPH degree in Epidemiology from the UNC School of Public Health.

Dr. Hanson directs the UNC Palliative Care Program, and leads the Measurement Core for the NIH-funded Palliative Care Research Cooperative group. Her research focuses on interventions to improve quality of palliative care for persons with advanced cancer, advanced dementia and other serious illnesses.

Awards and Honors

  • T. Reginald Harris Award, to the North Carolina physician with outstanding achievements in the areas of healthcare quality and service to the medical community, 2006
  • Ewald W. Busse Award, 2006
  • Book of the Year Award from the American Journal of Nursing, for Henderson M, Hanson LC, Reynolds K. Improving Nursing Home Care of the Dying; Springer Publications, 2003.
  • America’s Top Doctors, 2001-2008
  • Soros Faculty Scholar, Project on Death in America, 1997-1999

Find publications on PubMed