Dr. Roma Tickoo, MD, MPH

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Get to know Hospice and Palliative Medicine Physician Dr. Roma Tickoo, who serves patients in Duarte, California.

Dr. Tickoo is a cancer and it’s treatment related pain and palliative medicine physician with City of Hope National Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, California. She partners with patients and their families to bring them relief and improve quality of life, ensuring that “the patient has a voice in how he wants to be treated, not just medically but as a human being.”

She brings three decades of experience to City of Hope, including 13 years at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, where she performed the multiple roles of providing patient care, training medical students, residents and fellows, nurses, peers and international visiting clinicians. She helped establish care standards for all patients, especially the frail elderly.

Identifying with City of Hope’s mission, Dr. Tickoo enjoys being part of the team. “The most important thing for me is to better understand and treat difficulties experienced by cancer patients, and to be a part of an institution with such like-minded invaluable goals” she stated. 

Her areas of clinical expertise include hospice and palliative medicine, geriatric medicine, internal medicine, and pain medicine. She has devoted her career to the care of cancer patients.

From the time she was 6 years old, Dr. Tickoo sought to ease people’s pain. Her role models growing up were Florence Nightingale, Louis Pasteur and Mother Teresa. 

Raised in India, she received her medical degree from Government Medical College Jammu (Tawi). She then went on to continue her training in the United States, earning her Master of Public Health degree from Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University in 2000, and performing her residency in internal medicine at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center & Flushing Hospital Medical Center 2001- 2004. She followed this up with a fellowship in geratic medicine at New York University Medical Center in 2005, and a fellowship in hospice and palliative medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2007. After completion of her fellowship, she was retained as faculty at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She was also an adjunct teaching assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City.

Dedicated to clinical excellence, she is board-certified in internal medicine, geratiric medicine & 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.

Moreover, she is board-certified in pain medicine by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to serving the professions of psychiatry and neurology.

Alongside her clinical role, Dr. Tickoo serves as an Assistant Clinical Professor within the Department of Supportive Care Medicine at City of Hope.

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 physician specializing in hospice and palliative medicine provides care and support as patients and their families face the many challenges of living with a serious illness.

Among Dr. Tickoo’s various awards and honors include: America’s Most Honored Professionals Top 1% (2017-2019), New York Magazine Best Doctors (2019), Castle Connolly Regional Top Doctors (2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019), New York Metro Area’s Top Doctors (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019), New York Times Magazine, Sunday Edition, Castle Connolly Top Doctors (2018), Castle Connolly New York Metro Top Doctors 5th Anniversary (2018), Castle Connolly Exceptional Women in Medicine (2017), and America’s Most Honored Professionals Top 10% (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018). She was also awarded competitive admission to the Minority Career Development, Association of Medical Colleges in 2011.

On a more personal note, she speaks multiple languages, including English, Hindi, Kashmiri, and Punjabi.

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