Salimah H. Meghani, PhD, MBE, RN, FAAN
Dr. Meghani has a long-standing commitment to advancing the field of palliative care. Between 2005-2007, she served on the Taskforce to Improve Quality at the End of Life for Pennsylvanians and Patient Life-Sustaining Wishes Advisory Committee to assess the feasibility of POLST paradigm in Pennsylvania. Between 2012-2014, Dr. Meghani served on the Institute of Medicine Study Committee that authored the report, Dying in America: Improving Quality and Honoring Individual Preferences Near the End of Life. More recently, she was a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) planning committee on Pain and Symptom Management for People with Serious Illness in the Context of the Opioid Crisis and reviewed NAM report, Assessing Progress on the Future of Nursing. Dr. Meghani is the past Chair of the American Pain Society’s Pain Disparities Shared Interest Group, and currently serves on the Editorial Board of the official Journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine.
“My program of research combines an investigation of palliative care and social determinants of health– two layers of vulnerability embedded in the context of the complex healthcare system. I am committed to helping students and fellows develop skills and the scholarly tools to broach this important area of research.”
Education
- PhD, University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing , 2005
- MBE, University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, 2005
- MSN, University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing , 2001
- BSN, The Aga Khan University, School of Nursing , 1997
Social Justice
Dr. Salimah H. Meghani’s research focuses on investigating disparities in pain and symptom management in seriously ill individuals as a complex clinical and social phenomenon. She incorporates a discourse on disparities in the two palliative care courses she teaches at Penn Nursing at undergraduate and graduate levels where the topic of social justice and racial bias in health and access are brought to light and interrogated in an open and safe way. All students complete a Race Implicit Assessment Test (IAT) for their own personal understanding of where they stand and any blind spots.
Teaching
Dr. Meghani teaches two core courses in Penn Nursing’s Palliative Care Minor. For many years, she also taught the doctoral core course, Quantitative Research Design and Methods. Preparing the next generation of nursing leaders and researchers is one of the things Dr. Meghani values most. In the core courses that she teaches in the Palliative Care Minor, she engages students in appraising and critiquing existing healthcare delivery paradigms and re-imagining workable alternative models for the future.
Research
Dr. Meghani’s main research interest involves palliative care, specifically understanding and addressing sources of disparities in symptom management and outcomes among vulnerable populations. Her earlier work explicated sources of racial disparities in cancer pain outcomes (NIH/NINR 1K01NR010886) and clarified the role of patient-provider factors contributing to shaping preferences and adherence funded by highly competitive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Challenge Grant (NIH 1RC1NR011591).This longitudinal, interdisciplinary study leveraged methods from behavioral economics and patient-reported outcomes to understand sources of clinical disparities, preference-formation, consequent medication taking behavior, and clinical outcomes among cancer patients. Dr. Meghani recently led an American Cancer Society-funded research project to elicit patients-family dyad generated ideas to improve cancer pain management and to convert ideas to actionable interventions specific to decreasing disparities (ACS #128779-PEP-15-186-01). In 2019, Dr. Meghani was awarded a large multi-year R01 grant (NIH/NINR R01NR017853). This prospective cohort study will generate new knowledge about longitudinal pain, opioid self-management trajectories, and associated outcomes among cancer outpatients in the context of daily pain, pain flares, key clinical moderators and covariates. This study can have a sustained impact on the science of oncology pain and symptom management, specially best practices in the context of opioid crisis.
Selected Career Highlights
- Member, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine planning committee, Pain and Symptom Management for People with Serious Illness in the Context of the Opioid Crisis
- Member, Institute of Medicine Study Committee: Dying in America: Improving Quality and Honoring Individual Preferences Near the End of Life
- Reviewer, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Report: Assessing Progress on the IOM Report The Future of Nursing
- Former Chair, American Pain Society, Pain and Disparities Shared Interest Group
- Editorial Board, Pain Medicine: The official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
- Fellow, American Academy of Nursing
- Dean’s Award for Exemplary Teaching, Penn School of Nursing
- Barbara J. Lowery Doctoral Student Organization Faculty Award
Selected Publications
Meghani SH, Vapiwala N. Bridging the Critical Divide in Pain Management Guidelines From the CDC, NCCN, and ASCO for Cancer Survivors. JAMA Oncol. 2018 Oct 1;4(10):1323-1324. doi: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2018.1574. PubMed PMID: 29852051.
O’Connor NR, Junker P, Appel SM, Stetson RL, Rohrbach J, Meghani SH. Palliative Care Consultation for Goals of Care and Future Acute Care Costs: A Propensity-Matched Study. Am J Hosp Palliat Care. 2018 Jul;35(7):966-971. doi: 10.1177/1049909117743475. Epub 2017 Nov 23. PubMed PMID: 29169247.
Meghani SH, MacKenzie MA, Morgan B, Kang Y, Wasim A, Sayani S. Clinician-Targeted Mobile Apps in Palliative Care: A Systematic Review. J Palliat Med. 2017 Oct;20(10):1139-1147. doi: 10.1089/jpm.2017.0070. Epub 2017 May 30. Review. PubMed PMID: 28557549.
Meghani, S. H. (2016). Intended Target of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Opioid Guidelines. JAMA Oncology, 2(9), 1243. (PMID: 27468172). 10.1001/jamaoncol.2016.2185.
Meghani, S.H. & Knafl, G. (2016). Patterns of analgesic adherence predict health care utilization among outpatients with cancer pain. Patient Preference and Adherence, 10, 81-98. (PMID: 26869772; PMCID: PMC4734825)
- Meghani, S.H., Thompson, A.M., Chittams, J., Bruner, D.W., & Riegel, B. (2015). Adherence to analgesics for cancer pain: A comparative study of African Americans and Whites using an electronic monitoring device. Journal of Pain, 16(9), 825-835. (PMID: 26080042).10.1016/j.jpain.2015.05.009
- Meghani, S.H., & Hinds, P.S. (2015). Policy Brief: The Institute of Medicine Report Dying in America: Improving Quality and Honoring Individual Preferences Near the End of Life. Nursing Outlook, 63(1), 51-59. (PMID: 25645482).10.1016/j.outlook.2014.11.007
- Meghani, S.H., Kang, Y., Chittams, J., McMenamin, E., Mao, J., & Fudin, J. (2014). African Americans with cancer pain are more likely to receive an analgesic with toxic metabolite despite clinical risks: A mediation analysis study. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 32(25), 2773-2779. (PMID: 25049323).10.1200/JCO.2013.54.7992
- Meghani, S.H., Byun, E., & Gallagher, R.M. (2012). Time to take stock: A Meta-Analysis and systematic review of pain treatment disparities in the United States. Pain Medicine, 13(2), 150-174. (PMID: 22239747).10.1111/j.1526-4637.2011.01310.x
- Meghani, S.H., Polomano, R., Tait, R., Vallerand, A., Anderson, K., & Gallagher, R.M. (2012). Advancing a national agenda to eliminate disparities in pain care: Directions for health policy, education, practice, and research.. Pain Medicine, 13(1), 5-28. (PMID: 22142450).10.1111/j.1526-4637.2011.01289.x
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Penn Nursing Professor Receives Distinguished Nursing Researcher Award
The Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA) has awarded Penn Nursing’s Salimah Meghani, PhD, MBE, RN, FAAN, with this year’s Distinguished Nursing Researcher Award. This award recognizes a nurse researcher who has demonstrated longevity and consistency in research leadership that advances the mission and vision of HPNA through high quality research, influential publications, and research mentorship focused on improving care in serious illness. The award was presented on February 18, 2021 during the virtual 2021 HPNA/AAHPM Annual Assembly.
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Penn Nursing Professor Receives Distinguished Nursing Researcher Award
The Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA) has awarded Penn Nursing’s Salimah Meghani, PhD, MBE, RN, FAAN, with this year’s Distinguished Nursing Researcher Award. This award recognizes a nurse researcher who has demonstrated longevity and consistency in research leadership that advances the mission and vision of HPNA through high quality research, influential publications, and research mentorship focused on improving care in serious illness. The award was presented on February 18, 2021 during the virtual 2021 HPNA/AAHPM Annual Assembly.
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Palliative Nursing’s Role During COVID-19 and Beyond
As a rapid influx of patients overwhelmed health systems during the coronavirus pandemic, palliative nurses played dual roles supporting patients, patient families, and colleagues. Two researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) are among those detailing the important role palliative care has in responding during the COVID-19 pandemic and in future public health crises.