Rebecca Hutchinson, MD, MPH

Faculty Scientist I

Research Interests

  • Developing novel ways to improve access to high quality palliative care for patients throughout the state of Maine.
  • Understanding optimal methods of communicating prognosis in the face of uncertainty and assisting patients and families to cope with prognostic uncertainty.
  • Developing and evaluating interventions aimed to improve communication between doctors and patients.

Dr. Hutchinson is a Hospice and Palliative Care physician at MMC with a special interest in health services research in palliative care.  She received a BA in chemistry from Swarthmore College, MD from University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and an MPH from Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Hutchinson completed internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and her Hospice and Palliative Care fellowship at MMC.  She is board certified in internal medicine and hospice and palliative care.  She is currently an attending physician at Maine Medical Center.

Dr. Hutchinson’s primary research focus is on developing novel ways to increase access to palliative care for patients living throughout Maine. She has a specific interest on working to improve quality of palliative care for patients with advanced heart failure. She is also interested in research on improving prognostication and methods of delivering prognostic information to patients. Finally, she is interested in developing and evaluating educational interventions aimed at improving communication between doctors and their patients.

Hutchinson RN, Lucas L, Becker M, Wierman H, Fairfield K.  Patient characteristics associated with hospice utilization and hospice length of stay for elderly patients dying with melanoma.  Journal Pain and Symptom Management 2018; 55(4): 1165-1172.

Strout TD, Hillen M, Gutheil C, Anderson E, Hutchinson R, Ward H, Kay H, Mills GJ, Han PKJ.  Tolerance of uncertainty: A systematic review of health and healthcare-related outcomes.  Patient Education and Counseling.  2018; 101(9): 1518-37.

Hutchinson RN, Lucas L, Fairfield K.  End-of-life Healthcare Use of Medicare Patients with Melanoma Based on Patient Characteristics and Year of Death.  Journal of Maine Medical Center.  2019.  In press.