Carmelle Elie and Ashley Shreves on Palliative Care Medicine and Quality Living

Cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always

Hospice care is compassionate comfort care (as opposed to curative care) for people facing a terminal illness with a prognosis of six months or less, based on their physician’s estimate if the disease runs its course as expected. Palliative care is compassionate comfort care that provides relief from the symptoms and physical and mental stress of a serious or life-limiting illness. Palliative care can be pursued at diagnosis, during curative treatment and follow-up, and at the end of life.

Marie-Carmelle Elie, M.D., has been named chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. Carmelle obtained her undergraduate degree from Columbia University and her medical degree from the State University of New York in Brooklyn with a distinction in research. Since then, she has continued to identify herself as a scholar and clinical investigator. Following her emergency medicine residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, she completed a Critical Care/Trauma Fellowship at the R. Adam Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland. She is triple board-certified in emergency medicine, critical care, as well as hospice and palliative care medicine.

Dr. Ashley Shreves earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology and Chemistry from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA. She went on to receive a doctor of Medicine degree from Louisiana State University School of Medicine located in New Orleans, LA.  Ashley completed a residency in Emergency Medicine with St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City.  She then completed a Palliative Medicine Fellowship at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Ashley Shreves is board-certified in emergency medicine and palliative care and splits her clinical time between the two specialties.