Oliver Cerqueira

Medical Director, DO

Since its inception, I’ve been proud to be a part of Cura-HPC as the Medical Director. 

My responsibilities include overseeing the medical and palliative care management of our hospice patients, and overseeing our team of hospice professionals as they provide care. 

My interest in hospice and palliative care began just after finishing medical school. While completing an internal medicine residency, and then while working as a hospitalist, I began to become curious about the benefits palliative care provided to patients. 

While working with a hospice organization and inpatient palliative care programs, I learned more about both palliative care and hospice care and earned my hours to become board certified in hospice and palliative care. 

In addition to my work at Cura-HPC, I’m also an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Oklahoma where I’m able to teach and lecture about my experiences in palliative care. 

Specifically, I value hospice’s approach to quality of life and the holistic approach to care. While medical students are taught how to cure disease and “save” lives, hospice and palliative care recognizes there are other facets of care besides just the physical. 

Rather than trying to cure the incurable, we cure the symptoms that lead to suffering, which often leads to better life and even longer life, and preservation of dignity. 

I think it’s important that care isn’t only limited to the patients either. Hospice and palliative care provides benefits for friends, family members, and all loved ones involved in the patient’s life. 

In addition to my hospice and palliative care certification, I’m also board certified in internal medicine. 

At home, my wife, who is also a physician, and I have two wonderful sons, 8 and 7, who keep us very busy.