Dr. Theresa Ann Gillis, MD

Dr. Theresa Gillis serves as the medical director of Oncology Pain and Symptom Management Services at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center at Christiana Care Health System. Before coming to Delaware in 2001, she created and directed the inpatient rehabilitation unit at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas in Houston and established an outpatient care program for pain and impairments related to cancer treatment. She also taught medical students and residents at Baylor College of Medicine as a member of their teaching faculty from 1993-2001.

Dr. Gillis earned her medical degree in 1989 from Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine and completed a physical medicine and rehabilitation residency in 1993 at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Her primary professional specialty is cancer pain management, but she also studies and promotes effective rehabilitation strategies to help patients regain their abilities and activities after treatment.

Dr. Gillis has …lectured at regional and national conferences on how to best assist cancer patients through the stages of treatment, and published numerous articles and book chapters on symptom management.

At the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center, she has created the pain and symptom management program, which provides pain relief and self-care strategies to cancer patients. She regularly provides consultation to hospitalized patients at Christiana and Wilmington Hospitals.

She has served as a chair of the survivorship and palliative care project for the National Cancer Institute's National Community Cancer Center Program. She is a board member on the Delaware Health Sciences Alliance involving University of Delaware,Thomas Jefferson Universtiy and Nemours.

Dr. Gillis has subspecialty board certification in pain medicine, hospice and palliative medicine and also physical medicine and rehabilitation.

Dr. Gillis has been appointed as a clinical associate professor in rehabilitation medicine at Thomas Jefferson Medical College since 2005. She is affiliated with the following professional societies and boards: the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer, American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, American Pain Society, Medical Society of Delaware, Delaware Pain Initiative and the Delaware Cancer Consortium. Inside Houston magazine voted her a top doctor in 1998 and 2001, and Delaware Today magazine selected her as a top doctor in both 2003 and 2009.