Sonia Malhotra, MD, MS, FAAP, FAAHPM, FACP

Dr. Sonia Malhotra is an internationally recognized physician leader in Hospice and Palliative Medicine, serving as the Associate Chief of Palliative Medicine at Tulane School of Medicine. She is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Tulane and Founding Director of Palliative Medicine & Supportive Care at University Medical Center New Orleans (UMCNO) and Medical Director at East Jefferson Hospital (EJGH). She is the Associate Program Director for the Tulane Med-Peds Residency program and Adjunct faculty at Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) in Karnataka, India where she educates Indian residents in Palliative Medicine and collaborates on research.
 

Board certified in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Hospice & Palliative Medicine, she provides comprehensive, interdisciplinary supportive care to adults and children living with serious illness. Dr. Malhotra completed her combined Internal Medicine-Pediatrics residency at Tulane, where she served as Chief Resident, and pursued fellowship training in Adult and Pediatric Hospice & Palliative Medicine at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, earning a Master’s degree in Medical Education. Dr. Malhotra has been building Palliative Medicine programs in the New Orleans region since 2015 including Louisiana’s first Pediatric Palliative Medicine program. This has led to the expansion of integrated inpatient consult services, outpatient supportive care clinics, inpatient hospice beds, and fellowship training programs across the Gulf South.

Her academic work focuses on improving communication in serious illness, advancing culturally responsive and equitable palliative care delivery, and strengthening medical education in primary palliative care skills. Dr. Malhotra has authored peer-reviewed publications, including scholarship in oncology and serious illness care published in journals such as JAMA Oncology, and has contributed to national and international educational initiatives to expand access to high-quality Palliative Medicine and Supportive Care. Her research and program development efforts emphasize interdisciplinary team-based care, earlier integration of supportive services, and reducing disparities in access for historically underserved communities.

An award-winning educator and international leader, Dr. Malhotra serves on the Louisiana Governor’s Council on Palliative Care and is active within the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She sits on the Governor’s Council for Palliative Medicine. Through her work with the state Department of Health, payment models for Palliative Medicine have been established for Medicaid patients receiving serious illness care and extensions created for inpatient hospice days and the framing of a Pediatric Concurrent Care model. Through her clinical leadership, scholarship, and advocacy, she works to reframe Palliative Care as an essential, life-enhancing component of care at every stage of serious illness.