Kristina Newport

Kristina Newport, MD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine at Penn State University College of Medicine. She specializes in palliative care and works to improve care for people with serious illness by building programs and individual encounters to ensure medical care aligns with what is most important to patients and their families.

Dr. Newport's research focuses on palliative care integration across various medical specialties, particularly in oncology and neurological diseases. Her work emphasizes advance care planning, symptom management for patients with serious illness, and developing pathways to integrate specialty palliative care earlier in disease trajectories. She has made significant contributions to understanding how palliative care can be effectively delivered in community hospital settings and for patients with specific conditions including cancer, neurological diseases, and vascular diseases. Her clinical interests center on improving care for people with serious illness through program development and individual patient encounters.

Her recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on practical implementation of palliative care services, with particular emphasis on creating structured pathways for integrating palliative care into standard oncology practice and addressing healthcare utilization through advance care planning. Her research spans multiple disease specialties while maintaining a consistent focus on patient-centered care approaches and measurable outcomes in palliative service delivery.

Dr. Newport has received significant professional recognition including:

• Hospice Medical Director Certification (HMDC) from the Hospital Medical Director Certification Board (2019)
• Board-certification in Hospice and Palliative Care from the American Board of Medical Specialties (2010)

As an educator, Dr. Newport founded "Oncologist in my Pocket," a training program that began as workshops at the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Annual Assembly (2017-2019) and has grown into an independent educational program attracting participants nationwide. The program prepares clinicians to competently meet American Society of Clinical Oncology guidelines to provide palliative care for all patients with advanced cancer within eight weeks of diagnosis. She also engages in community outreach through the Susquehanna Valley Palliative Care Coalition to improve access to palliative care services for all patients in Central Pennsylvania through growth in Penn State Health access as well as collaborations with community organizations.

Dr. Newport previously served as the founding clinician of an outpatient palliative oncology clinic in Lancaster, PA, before joining Penn State Health. She continues to expand palliative care access through institutional growth and community collaborations, while maintaining an active research program with significant scholarly output.