Dr. Suzana K.E. Makowski, MD, MMM

Expert Publications

• Assessing local market and organizational readiness for the integration of complementary and alternative medicine into ambulatory care centers.
• Who is at risk for psychological distress? A patient-centered process to identify risk for posttraumatic stress disorder and depression in families of ICU patients.

Media Releases

Get to know Palliative Care Physician and Internist Dr. Suzana K.E. Makowski, who serves patients in New Hampshire. 

Being an experienced palliative care physician and internist, Dr. Makowski serves as the Chief of Palliative Care at Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire. She is also a Voluntary Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester.

Alongside her clinical and academic roles, she is the Founder of the Lois Green Learning Community – an online community aiming to support the education of clinicians across the globe who are committed to alleviating suffering through thoughtful, patient-centered, interdisciplinary palliative care.

“Playing my role to transform healthcare via medical education, humanism in practice, social media, and mindfulness. I am a positive deviant and “Planetree insurgent” who firmly believes that healthcare is meant to be compassionate and collaborative” as stated by Dr. Makowski.

In addition to being a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP), she is board-certified in hospice and palliative medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM). The ABIM is a physician-led, non-profit, independent evaluation organization driven by doctors who want to achieve higher standards for better care in a rapidly changing world.

A 1998 graduate of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York, Dr. Makowski went on to serve her residency in internal medicine at Baystate Medical Center. This was followed by a fellowship in integrative medicine at the University of Rochester, and an additional fellowship in hospice and palliative medicine at San Diego Hospital in 2005. 

A Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (FAAHPM), Dr. Makowski has served on their Quality, Leadership, and Humanities Committees, and has participated in board review writing and editorial committees for HPMPass. She has also been active with both the Center for Mindfulness and the Gold Foundation, fostering humanism in medicine, practices, and approaches that have influenced her teaching, mentorship, and leadership.

Hospice and palliative medicine is a formal subspecialty of medicine in the United States that focuses on symptom management, relief of suffering, and end-of-life care. A palliative care physician is a doctor who specializes in the care of dying patients. They often coordinate a multidisciplinary team that ensures optimization of care around the time of death. Their role includes supporting the emotional as well as medical and physical well-being through the dying process.

Among her most notable achievements as a clinician and medical educator, Dr. Makowski is the recipient of the Leonard Tow Award for Medical Humanism (2010) and the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award (2013). She has also been named one of the most Exceptional Women in Medicine by Castle Connolly (2017), a Top Doctor by Castle Connolly (2013-2018), and a Top Doctor by New Hampshire Magazine (2018, 2019).

In her personal life, Dr. Makowski is a dog lover, a back-country skier, a dabbler in social media, and a fumbler of a few languages. She was born in Rio and grew up in a bunch of places splattered across the globe. She speaks several languages, including English, German, Portuguese, and Spanish.

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