The UNC Department of Urology is proud to celebrate the accomplishments of alumna Dr. Pauline Filippou (Residency Class of 2020), who was recently featured on the BackTable Urology podcast in Episode #249, Palliative Care in Urology. The episode highlights Dr. Filippou’s clinical and research leadership in integrating palliative care into urologic oncology—a topic she has championed throughout her career.
Hosted by Drs. Gina Badalato and Lindsay Hampson, the episode brings together Dr. Filippou and Dr. Ashwin Kotwal (UCSF) for an in-depth discussion on how palliative care principles can be embedded into urology practice to improve patient outcomes and align treatment with patients’ values and goals. Dr. Filippou reflects on her own experiences delivering palliative care in her current role at Kaiser Permanente Northern California and as an affiliated faculty member at Stanford, drawing from the expertise she developed during fellowship and her time at UNC.
Her message is clear: palliative care isn’t just for end-of-life—it’s about improving quality of life at every stage of serious illness. From communication strategies to interdisciplinary collaboration, the episode provides valuable insights for trainees and seasoned clinicians alike.
Dr. Filippou’s deep engagement with this topic began during her training at UNC and was further developed during her urologic oncology fellowship at the University of Washington. While there, she led impactful research documenting how hospice enrollment significantly enhances the end-of-life experience for bladder cancer patients. Her work has helped reframe how urologists think about supportive care, showing that early integration of palliative principles can profoundly improve patient and family outcomes.
This isn’t Dr. Filippou’s first time being recognized for her forward-thinking approach. As a Chief Resident at UNC, she was awarded the prestigious Pope Clinical Trainee Award for her work evaluating racial differences in patient-reported outcomes following prostate cancer treatment. She credited her time at UNC and mentorship from faculty members like Dr. Angela Smith as instrumental in shaping her career.
BackTable Urology has featured several UNC Urology voices over the years—including Dr. Angela Smith and Dr. Matthew Nielsen—and it’s a proud moment for the department to see one of its own alumni return to the platform as a leading voice in her field.
Dr. Filippou’s feature serves as a testament to the department’s enduring commitment to cultivating clinician-leaders who not only advance surgical and oncologic care, but also embrace holistic, patient-centered approaches to healing.
Listen to the full episode: BackTable Urology Episode #249 or watch below.