Faculty Spotlight: Grady Paden
Dr. Grady Paden earned his medical degree and completed his residency at the University of Washington and joined the faculty in 1989. Dr. Paden pioneered the UW clinician faculty track at the VA Puget Sound. He deepened his humanistic qualities and interpersonal skills by undertaking the study of palliative care at St. Christopher’s Hospice in London and the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, England, during a 9-month sabbatical in 2001-2002.
Paden has been a trusted member of numerous clinical care teams at the VA, including the General Internal Medicine Clinic, Primary Care Clinic, Emergency Room, GeriPACT (Geriatrics), the Palliative Care consultation service, and ethics consultation service. In 2013 he transitioned to full-time palliative care practice. He was a member of the inaugural cohort of the UW Cambia Center of Excellence in Palliative Care graduate certificate program in 2015. He now serves as faculty for this program.
Paden is also a senior faculty member of VitalTalk, the premiere organization training clinicians internationally to advance their serious illness communications skills. Through VitalTalk he is an invited speaker and facilitator for serious illness communication workshops locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.
Paden serves as coordinator and master trainer in the VA national Life-Sustaining Treatments Decisions Initiative (LSTI), providing ongoing serious illness conversation training to inter-professional staff. He also serves as a principal trainer for the Serious Illness Care Program through Harvard Ariadne Labs, facilitating workshops for national audiences in serious illness communication several times annually.
Paden is highly respected by colleagues and learners. He has been described as one of the most “compassionate physicians” and one who sets the “gold standard for professionalism”.
A learner noted, “Dr. Paden is one of the best physicians I have worked with all year. He has a wonderful bedside manner” and another described him as “a master communicator and is so good at teaching others about communication”.