Anna DeForest

Areas of Expertise

My Specialties

  • Palliative care
  • Neurology

Get to Know Me

I am a neurologist with expertise in pain and symptom management for people with cancer. I see the patient as a whole person, with a life and history much larger and richer than any medical diagnosis. My care approach centers on helping patients put voice to their individual experiences with cancer and their care goals; my colleagues and I use these insights to craft treatment plans that meet each person’s unique needs.

In addition to my clinical work, I am an educator with a strong interest in narrative medicine. I believe that literary techniques and creative practices can be powerful means of increasing self-reflection, deep attention, and compassion among medical trainees, as well as experienced practitioners. My training as a writer meets my clinical work in that both require a honed attention to the ways in which others share with us the content of their experience. It is this noticing that most brings compassion to clinical practice.

What I Do at MSK

I'm a neurologist, which is a doctor with special training in the brain, spinal cord, nerves, and muscles.

I'm a supportive care doctor, with special training in care that supports people with cancer. I help improve quality of life and manage the symptoms and side effects of cancer and its treatment.

  • Assistant Attending Physician
Areas of Expertise

My Specialties

  • Palliative care
  • Neurology
Education & Honors

Education

  • MFA, Fiction Writing, Brooklyn College
  • MD, Columbia University

Residencies

  • Neurology - Yale New Haven Hospital

Fellowships

  • Hospice and Palliative Medicine

Awards and Honors

  • Emerging Leader, AAHPM Neuropalliative Special Interest Group (2020)

Insurance Information

Understanding your insurance options is an important part of managing your cancer care. We have relationships with many common healthcare providers and plans.

Don't see your carrier or plan? We can help you understand your coverage.

If you don't have health insurance or are worried that your care may not be fully covered, our financial assistance programs may be able to help.

If you have questions about insurance, call us at 646-497-9176.

Contact and Location

Dr. DeForest sees patients at one location.

Location
New York, NY
1275 York Avenue New York NY 10065

Looking to see a doctor at a different location? See all MSK locations.

Colleagues

Doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering work as teams, with specialists from all different areas. This allows us to consider all your needs together, and to give you the best possible care.

See all Supportive Care doctors

Clinical Trials

Smiling doctors in the lab
Find a Clinical Trial for You

Memorial Sloan Kettering's doctors and scientists are constantly developing new treatments for cancer. MSK is typically running hundreds of clinical trials at a given time.

You may be able to participate in a clinical trial even if you are new to MSK. Search our online directory to find trial information and see more about who can participate.

Search clinical trials

Research and Publications

Publications on PubMed

Visit PubMed for a full listing of Dr. DeForest’s journal articles. Pubmed is an online index of research papers and other articles from the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

See all on PubMed

Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.

Anna DeForest discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

No disclosures meeting criteria for time period


If you’re a patient at MSK and would like more information about your doctor’s external relationships, please talk with your doctor.

The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.


This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2023 through disclosure submission in spring 2024). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].


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