The recipients of the third annual Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards, honoring excellence in end-of-life care, were recently announced.
The awards were made in three categories: a senior physician category for leadership in end-of-life care, a mid-career physician category for longstanding commitment to serving patients and for leadership in palliative care, and an early-career physician category for serious commitment to the field and contribution through practical research or clinical work. The recipients were drawn from a national group of nominated candidates.
Janet Bull, MD, chief medical director and principal investigator of Four Seasons, a nonprofit hospice and palliative care organization that serves the Hendersonville and Asheville regions of western North Carolina, received the senior physician award of $25,000. She has served as principal investigator of more than 30 clinical trials to establish best practices in hospice and palliative care. She has also designed an experimental course to train palliative care physicians and provides consulting programs in hospice, palliative care, and research. In addition, she has worked closely with the Palliative Care Association of Zambia to advance policy, education, and clinician training to promote palliative care throughout that country.
Michael Rabow, MD, Professor of Clinical Medicine, University of California‐San Francisco; Director, Symptom Management Service, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Care Center, received the mid-career physician award of $25,000. He developed the service, which is one of the first outpatient palliative care services in a comprehensive cancer center in the U.S. It includes an interdisciplinary team of clinicians from medicine, oncology, surgery, nursing, social work, psychology, pharmacy, and chaplaincy.
Early-career awards of $15,000 each were given to three physicians:
- Justin N. Baker, MD, FAAP, FAAHPM, director, Division of Palliative and End-of-Life Care, an attending physician, Quality of Life Service, and director of the Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, for outstanding leadership and research on palliative care for children.
- Jason Morrow, MD, PhD, medical director of palliative care at University Health System in San Antonio, Tx., and an assistant professor of medicine at University of Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine, for his advocacy in expanding palliative care services and his passion for educating medical students, residents, and other physicians in clinical practices and ethics.
- Theresa A. Soriano, MD, MPH, director, Mount Sinai Visiting Doctor’s Program, Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, for her advocacy and leadership in caring for underserved patients and bringing primary and palliative care to those who are homebound.
