Bio
CONTACT:
Email: periyakoil@stanford.edu
Twitter: @palliator
VJ Periyakoil, MD, Professor of Medicine; Associate Dean of Research (Geriatrics and Palliative Care), Founding Director, the Stanford Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program and Founding Director, the Stanford Palliative Care Education & Training Program.
Dr. Periyakoil served two terms as a standing member of the study section for the National Institute of Aging, National Institutes of Health. She has chaired study section meetings for NIH/NIA and NIH/CSR. She continues to serve as an adhoc member of the NIA and NIMHD study sections.
Dr. Periyakoil is the Senior Associate Editor of the Journal of Palliative Medicine, Associate Editor, of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, and Associate Director of the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. She is the Chair emerita of the Ethnogeriatrics Committee of the American Geriatrics Society, and was the founding Chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine’s Hospice & Palliative Medicine SEP Committee. She served as a Board member of the Council of Faculty and Societies, and founded and served as chair the Diversity Committee of the American Association of Medical Colleges. Her work is funded by grants from NIH, HRSA, foundations as well as the Department of Veterans Affairs.
A nationally recognized leader in geriatrics and palliative care, Periyakoil founded and directs Stanford Aging, Geriatrics and Ethnogeriatrics Transdisciplinary Collaborative Research Center (SAGE Center) and mentors numerous junior faculty members. She founded and directs the Ethno-geriatrics & the Successful Aging Project (http://geriatrics.stanford.edu), the Palliative Care portal (http://palliative.stanford.edu), and the Letter Project (http://med.stanford.edu/letter.html).
She has won many research awards including a young investigator award by the American Association of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, a plenary research paper award by the American Geriatrics Society (2014), Ethnogeriatrics Research poster award (2015), and a research award by the American Association of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (2015), and an Innovator award from the American Medical Association (2015). Her recent awards include a research paper award from the ABIM Foundation (2021) and the Dr. David H. Solomon Award for Clinical Research in the field of Aging (2022) from UCLA.
In the clinical realm, she co-founded Palliative Care Services and serves as the Director of Out-Patient Palliative Care at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. Her research focuses on various aspects of aging and especially on using technology to improve the life course and aging experience for patients and families. She has multiple research projects in ethnogeriatrics, palliative & end-of-life care. She has presented in numerous national meetings including the plenary of the American Geriatrics Society, American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, and the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization. She currently serves as the inaugural Associate Chief of Staff for Organizational Culture and Leadership at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System.
She can be contacted by email (periyakoil at stanford dot edu) or through twitter : @palliator
