Dr. Christine Khandelwal earns NCMS Golden Stethoscope

Dr. Christine Khandelwal leads people. She teaches people. She cares for people.

And her work doesn't go unnoticed.

Khandelwal recently earned a N.C. Medical Society Golden Stethoscope Award. The group of awards go to NCMS physicians or physician assistants who demonstrate excellence in leadership, dedication to patients and stellar skills in motivating, inspiring and leading a medical team, the NCMS website says.

That description effectively defines Khandelwal's work, at the Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine and throughout the community. She is a professor of Family Medicine and director of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Campbell, president of the N.C. Medical Board and vice chair of Medicine for WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh.

A colleague, Dr. Nanette Lavoie-Vaughan, nominated Khandelwal. They worked together at Transitions LifeCare in Wake County.

"Dr. Khandelwal is an exemplary physician whose contributions to geriatric and palliative medicine have been both profound and far-reaching. Her unwavering dedication to all our patients, learners and community makes Dr. Khandelwal a truly deserving candidate for the NCMS Golden Stethoscope Award," Lavoie-Vaughan wrote in nominating Khandelwal, who is proud of the honor.

She says Lavoie-Vaughan was not only a colleague but also a mentor and a friend.

"Nan was just a wonderful colleague," Khandelwal says. "I learned a lot from Nan. She helps teach with me, and we always stay connected."

Khandelwal, who said she "loves" being a part of the Campbell faculty, sees a great need for building a healthcare force, particularly physicians, to care for an aging population and patients with serious illnesses, as well as working to meet the demands from the community on the clinical side.

"That's where palliative care comes in," Khandelwal says.

She is now working with WakeMed to establish and enhance services related to aging and geriatrics.

"Because I've been working at WakeMed on the inpatient side for 10 years, I recognized a need a long time ago, and I've been trying to figure out how I can then take that and build that up. When you're the voice of a vulnerable population, it's on us as physicians to advocate in other ways, and that's how I look at it," Khandelwal says.

"To me, it's just another way to advocate for my population, by taking it on myself to see what can I do to make some kind of an impact to meet the needs … the growing demands and complex care needs in the community. I was fortunate that WakeMed supported that idea, and we've been piloting it. It's going to be a year in February, but it has really taken off."

She sees patients in a primary care setting and performs a full geriatric assessment, addressing their needs and their medications. She also addresses things such as advanced care planning and fall risk.
Khandelwal is from New York but trained at the University of Pittsburgh. She came to North Carolina through the University of North Carolina on a geriatric fellowship.

"I knew early on, I saw early on, that we were not going to be ready for the growing demands of an aging population," she says. "Even then … I saw we were still not giving the skills and enough knowledge to prepare family physicians to serve the aged population and the more complex patients, who can live with a lot of medical issues through the end of life."

Khandelwal is also working to bring more attention to caregivers and those falling in the so-called "sandwich generation," people with aging parents as well as parents of young children and young adults.

Khandelwal talks with caregivers about the associated stress, the worry and the fear.

"I want to validate what you're doing for them," she says she tells them. "I know it's stressful. You're worried. You want to respect their dignity and autonomy, but I also know you're also worried about the future, and sometimes you probably want to talk about things but don't want to bring it up to them. And that's where I provide, I hope, a safe space to have that conversation."

She sees geriatric and palliative care as a beautiful bridge connecting science to humanity.

"What real medicine is," she says. "And I think when students spend time with me, I think a lot of them see it that way."

Khandelwal talks about a medical student who complimented her on a wonderful rotation. The student plans to study and work in radiology, which is unrelated to geriatrics.

Still, the words made Khandelwal smile.

"I love being on the faculty here," Khandelwal says. "I'm so supported to build up a wonderful, I hope, program here to train our future physicians and the PAs. … And I hope it does show our younger generation what a joy it is to care for this complex population, that it's meaningful work, and we can make a difference in people's lives and for our community.

"So, I just want people to always think about that. This is a wonderful, satisfying career."

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