- About
- Specialties & Areas of Expertise
- Locations & Patient Information
- Education & Research
- Accepted Insurance
- External Professional Relationships
My name is Shellie Williams. I am a geriatrician, and I'm also a palliative care physician. In geriatrics, my primary focus is enhancing the functionality of older adults. And in palliative care, my primary focus is improving quality of life for individuals. And I feel the best way for me to do both of those skills is to really get to the heart of who someone is and to figure out how to help them achieve their goals in life.
I grew up with a mom who worked as a medical transcriptionist in an office of cardiologists. And many of the doctors she worked with looked very different from me, from my father, from my mother. So I only had one example of what it meant to be a physician and what it meant to be a Black physician, and that was Dr. Keith who was my pediatrician.
I loved him. I felt like he was knowledgeable. He really made me feel like he was listening to me during appointments, and that's what I wanted to model.
This is one of the only academic institutions on the South Side of Chicago, and it has a commitment to serving the community that looks like me and grew up like me, so why wouldn't I want to be here? I have a unique background in medicine, but I don't have a background in that individual patient. And the best way for me to be able to fight disparities within health is to get to know each individual patient, get to know what their goals are, what their focus in life is, what are some of the health barriers, and really be able to help them craft a plan that overcomes many of those barriers.
I think the biggest unique experience is just what I learn every single day from patients. They teach me. They humble me each and every day and really teach me that I have to listen to them and morph where we're going as far as the plan of care to that individual patient. And I also gain that same type of experience each time I work with trainees, because each of them, when they'll have an aha moment with a patient, gives me a new perspective on how to approach or how to perceive what's going on with a patient.
Specialties
Areas of Expertise
- Palliative Medicine
- Delirium Recognition & Prevention
- Dementia
Board Certifications
- Geriatric Medicine
Languages Spoken
- English
Medical Education
- Southern Illinois University School of Medicine
Residency
- University of Illinois Hospital and Health Science
Fellowship
- John A. Burns School of Medicine at University of Hawaii
News & Research
Insurance
- Aetna Better Health *see insurance page
- Aetna HMO (specialists only)
- Aetna Medicare Advantage HMO & PPO
- Aetna POS
- Aetna PPO
- BCBS Blue Precision HMO (specialists only)
- BCBS HMO (HMOI) (specialists only)
- BCBS Medicare Advantage HMO & PPO
- BCBS PPO
- Cigna HMO
- Cigna POS
- Cigna PPO
- CountyCare *see insurance page
- Humana Medicare Advantage Choice PPO
- Humana Medicare Advantage Gold Choice PFFS
- Humana Medicare Advantage Gold Plus HMO
- Medicare
- Multiplan PPO
- PHCS PPO
- United Choice Plus POS/PPO
- United Choice HMO (specialists only)
- United Options (PPO)
- United Select (HMO & EPO) (specialists only)
- United W500 Emergent Wrap
- University of Chicago Health Plan (UCHP)
Our list of accepted insurance providers is subject to change at any time. You should contact your insurance company to confirm UChicago Medicine participates in their network before scheduling your appointment. If you have questions regarding your insurance benefits at UChicago Medicine, please contact our financial counseling team at OPSFinancialCounseling@uchospitals.edu.
Some of our physicians and health professionals collaborate with external pharmaceutical, medical device, or other medical related entities to develop new treatments and products to improve clinical outcomes for patients. In some instances, the physician has ownership interests in the external entity and/or is compensated for advising or speaking about the entity’s products or treatments. These payments may include compensation for consulting and speaking engagements, equity, and/or royalties for products invented by our physicians. To assure objectivity and integrity in patient care, UChicago Medicine requires all physicians and health professionals to report their relationships and financial interests with external entities on an annual basis. This information is used to review relationships and transactions that might give rise to potential financial conflicts of interest, and when considered to be significant a management plan to mitigate any biases is created.
If you are a patient at UChicago Medicine and would like more information about your physician’s external relationships, please talk with your physician. You may also visit the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Open Payments website at https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/ . CMS Open Payments is a national disclosure program that promotes a more transparent and accountable health care system. It houses a publicly accessible database of payments that reporting entities, including drug and medical device companies, make to covered recipients like physicians and hospitals.
Information in the CMS Open Payments database could potentially contain inaccurately reported and out of date payment information. All information is open to personal interpretation, if there are questions about the data, patients and their advocates should speak directly to their health care provider for a better understanding.