PMPC Our Team

Sharon M. Weinstein, MD, FAAHPM, a Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) physician and investigator, is a professor of anesthesiology and adjunct associate professor of neurology and medicine (oncology) at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center. She is the director of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at Huntsman Cancer Institute. She is Chief of Holistic Medicine at the Veterans Administration Salt Lake City Health Care System. Weinstein earned her medical degree at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, where she completed her residency in neurology. She was a fellow in pain medicine at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She has a background in dance and complementary medicine.

Weinstein is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology with a certificate of added qualification in pain medicine management and is certified by the American Board of Medical Specialties in hospice and palliative medicine. She was elected fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine in 2009. Weinstein is a faculty scholar of the Open Society Institute�s Project on Death in America. She was awarded a clinical oncology career development award by the American Cancer Society for her research in post-amputation phantom pain.

Weinstein is a section editor of Current Pain and Headache reports, serves on the editorial board of CNS Special Edition, and as the asociate editor for supportive oncology for the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. She has authored more than 90 articles, book chapters, reviews, editorials, and abstracts. Additionally, Weinstein has given more than 200 presentations to professional and lay audiences here and abroad.

Paul Thielking, MD, a Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) physician and investigator, is an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah. Thielking works with HCI�s Pain Medicine and Palliative Care Program doing outpatient clinical work and inpatient consults.

Thielking focuses on a comprehensive approach to care that includes the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of pain and suffering. He integrates medical care with complementary approaches to healing�particularly stress-reduction techniques that use breath, sound, and meditation.

Thielking earned both a bachelor�s and medical degree from the University of Iowa. He completed a psychiatry residency at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

Thielking, along with Sharon Weinstein, MD, director of the Pain Medicine and Palliative Care Program at HCI, are the only physicians at the U of U who are board certified in hospice and palliative medicine by the American Board of Medical Specialties. Thielking was the recipient of the first Albert A. Weinstein Memorial Palliative Medicine Training Award (2008-2009). The award supports physician training in palliative medicine. It is given in honor of Weinstein's father, a cancer patient who received excellent palliative care.

Deborah Thorpe, PhD, APRN, AOCNS, ACHPN: Nursing Director for Pain Medicine and Palliative Care

Deborah Thorpe is an advanced practice nurse. She is certified as an advanced oncology clinical nurse specialist (AOCNS) through the Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation and as an advanced certified hospice and palliative nurse (ACHON) through the National Board for Certification of Hospice and Palliative Nurses.

She is an experienced clinician, educator, and researcher. Before joining Huntsman Cancer Institute she worked with Drs. Sharon Weinstein and C. Stratton Hill at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston where she was instrumental in establishing one of first multidisciplinary pain and palliative care programs in the country. She continues to dedicate herself to the goal of integrating palliative care throughout the continuum of cancer care.

She currently serves as a mentor and preceptor for graduate and undergraduate nursing students from the University of Utah College of Nursing and for palliative care nurse practitioners through the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association. In 2008 she was named a mentor and partnered with a new palliative care nurse practitioner by the College of Palliative Care, a year-long program sponsored by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She has also been active in governmental affairs and participated in lobbying efforts for the first Intractable Pain Treatment Act in the State of Texas in 1988. Currently she serves as the state health policy liaison for the Utah Oncology Nursing Society.

Thorpe's research interests include non-pharmacological interventions for pain and symptom management, fatigue, opioid-related bowel dysfunction, and the relationship of pain and suffering to requests for physician-assisted suicide. She is active in the community and provides community based bereavement education programs and participates in the health ministry at a local church.

She holds a bachelor�s of science in nursing from Illinois Wesleyan University, a master�s degree in nursing from Boston University, and a PhD in nursing from Texas Woman�s University. She has also earned additional hours in the post-graduate Oncology Nurse Practitioner Program at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston. She has more than 50 published book chapters, referred journal articles, and abstracts and has been a featured speaker both nationally and internationally.

Robbi Lucas, APRN, is an advanced-practice nurse. She performs outpatient clinical work and inpatient consults. Lucas is an experienced clinician who has practiced in urgent care and emergency room environments.

Lucas was a major in the United States Nursing Corps who served in Operation Desert Storm. She received bachelor�s and master�s degrees from the University of Utah.

Amy Horyna is medical oncology social worker at Huntsman Cancer Institute. She counsels patients for the Pain Medicine and Palliative Care team.

Horyna is experienced in working with individuals and families. In addition to oncology, she has worked in substance abuse and crisis intervention programs. She is experienced in facilitating therapeutic groups for individuals and families.

She earned a bachelor�s degree from Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah and a master�s degree from the University of Utah.

Paul Sabin is the patient care coordinator for Huntsman Cancer Institute Pain Medicine and Palliative Care Program. His responsibilities include clinic operations, nursing education, patient staffing, and clinic communications.

Sabin has worked as an orthopedic nurse at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York and at the Orthopaedic Center at the University of Utah.

He holds a bachelor�s and master�s degree from the University of Utah, and a bachelor�s degree in nursing from the University of Rochester, New York.

Kim Miller is a clinical research associate for the Pain Medicine and Palliative Care Program at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI).

Before joining HCI, Miller served as program manager for the Governor Scott M. Matheson Center for Health Care Studies. She was administrative director of the master�s program in health services administration at the University of Utah and executive director of the American Association of Bioethics.

She received a bachelor�s and master�s degree from the University of Utah.

Margaret Barnes, MD, is the first hospice and palliative medicine fellow at University of Utah Medical Center. She trains under the supervision of Sharon M. Weinstein, MD, FAAHPM, in the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) Pain Medicine and Palliative Care Program and at other affiliated sites.

Before joining HCI, Barnes was an associate professor of radiation oncology at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia. She also had a private practice in Billings, Montana.

Barnes graduated magna cum laude from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She received a medical degree from Temple University, Philadelphia. She completed an internship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C., and received residency training at the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland.

Suzy Simmonds is an administrative assistant for the Pain Medicine and Palliative Care Program at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI). She is also the program coordinator for the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship at the University of Utah.

Before joining HCI�s Pain Medicine and Palliative Care team, Simmonds worked for the Pain Management Center at the University of Utah.