Faculty

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Dr. Stacy Fischer is an assistant professor in the Division. After completing a residency in internal medicine, Dr. Fischer studied Spanish in Latin America and worked in an underserved hospital in Peru. She returned to UCD to train in geriatrics and aging research. While her primary interest is in end-of-life research, through her experiences in Central/South America, she became interested in how culture and socioeconomic deprivation affect healthcare, specifically, care at the end-of-life.

She is currently completing her dissertation for a doctorate from UCD Health and Behavioral Sciences program. Her work, funded by the Brookdale National Fellowship program, explores how ethnicity and poverty affects care and preferences for care at the end of life in a cohort of older, seriously ill, hospitalized patients from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. The results of that project have led to her current NIA/Beeson K23 Career Development Award, conducting a randomized controlled trial of the effects of a bicultural patient navigator (guia) to improve advanced care planning, pain management, and hospice education and referrals for elderly, seriously ill Latinos.

In addition to her research, Dr. Fischer is involved in teaching medical students and residents. She is board certified in Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, and Hospice/Palliative Medicine. Her recent clinical work includes working at the senior’s clinic at the Westside Family Health Center, a community-based clinic part of the Denver Health Medical Center, Denver’s safety-net hospital. She has served as the medical director for home care at the Hospice of St. John’s since 2003 and is an attending on the palliative care consultation service.

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