Sonia_Malhotra

Sonia Malhotra MD, MS, FAAP

Director, Palliative Medicine & Supportive Care, University Medical Center, New Orleans

Dr. Sonia Malhotra was born and raised in Southern California and did her Med-Peds Residency at Tulane School of Medicine and fellowship in Adult & Pediatric Palliative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. She currently serves as the Director for the Palliative Medicine and Supportive Care Service at University Medical Center New Orleans (UMCNO)/Tulane SOM. UMCNO is a safety net, tertiary referral, Level 1 Trauma Center that serves the entire gulf region. She is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Tulane and Louisiana State University Schools of Medicine. Dr. Malhotra has been building Palliative Medicine programs in the New Orleans region since 2015, starting at Ochsner Health System and then moving over to UMCNO. She assisted in the development of the state's first Palliative Medicine fellowship and has built inpatient and outpatient services as well as collaborations with local hospices, oncology and critical care service lines.

Dr. Malhotra served on the Louisiana Governor's Council on Palliative Care, where she led the DEI and Education Committees. She has a keen interest in equity and inclusion within Palliative Medicine and has funding from the American Cancer Society to improve integration of Palliative Medicine services with metastatic cancer patients from underrepresented and marginalized backgrounds. She graduated from the Tulane Anti-Racism Leadership institute in 2021 and was chosen by her peers to deliver the graduation keynote. She has been honored by UMCNO as a Physician Champion of Equity and has been awarded AAHPM's Emerging Leader Award, NRC Health's Excellence in Human Understanding Award and the Gold Foundation's Humanism in Healthcare Educator of the Year at Tulane School of Medicine. Her goals are to improve access to Palliative Medicine in the Deep South and assist with educating future generations on how to include EDI practices in healthcare.


Appearances