Ann O’Hare inaugural holder of Bill Peckham Endowed Fund for Person-Centered Care
Dr. Ann O’Hare, professor (Nephrology) has been appointed the inaugural holder of the Bill Peckham Endowed Fund for Person-Centered Care.
O’Hare received her medical degree at the University of Virginia, completed her residency training at Stanford University, and her Nephrology fellowship at the University of California San Francisco.
She was admitted to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society as a medical student. She was recruited her to the University of Washington in 2007 and she has been based at the Puget Sound VA.
She has gained international recognition for her path-breaking research, which has had the overarching goal of making care of older patients with kidney disease concordant with their goals, values, and expectations.
She has highlighted the high intensity of care towards the end of life in this patient population, and the low use of hospice. Her work has been extremely influential in the field as it has spurred innovative interventions to make the care more person-centered, including in our own community with the establishment of the Kidney Supportive Care program at the Northwest Kidney Centers.
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his endowed fund has been established in loving memory of Bill Peckham who developed kidney failure in his early 20s and spent decades on home hemodialysis. He was a strong advocate for patient engagement, he served on the Board of Trustees of the Northwest Kidney Centers, including a term as Chair, and catalyzed the founding of the Kidney Research Institute at the University of Washington.
During his years on dialysis, he visited 34 countries on five continents, dialyzing in 23 of them. While he passed away in 2019, he continues to be an inspiration.