Physician Bios
Awardees
2014 Awardees
Senior Physician Award:
Catherine Deamant, M.D., system director of Supportive and Palliative Care Services for the Cook County Health and Hospitals System in Chicago and program director of the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship at the John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County. She has distinguished herself by creating a nationally recognized palliative care service in a county-funded safety-net hospital, serving patient populations that lack access to such care, including immigrants and detainees. Under her leadership, despite tremendous financial barriers, the palliative care service conducts 850 inpatient consults a year, runs five outpatient clinics, performs home visits, and trains fellows. Colleagues cite the lengths that she has gone for her patients, including working with foreign consulates to make travel possible for gravely ill patients who want to die in their home countries.
Mid-Career Physician Award:
Chris Feudtner, M.D., PhD, MPH, director of the Department of Medical Ethics and director of research for the Pediatric Advanced Care Team at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He is recognized for his leadership in promoting better, more patient-driven care for children at the end of their lives, as well as for their families. He has received numerous awards for his teaching, mentoring, and research. Among his many research efforts, he helped establish the Pediatric Palliative Care Research Network, a group of leading researchers in the U.S. and Canada who work collectively on improving pediatric palliative care services. He is a nationally recognized researcher and ethicist who is praised for his exceptional “face-to-face skills.”
Early-Career Physician Awards:
Elise C. Carey, M.D., FAAHPM, chair of the Section of Palliative Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for her national leadership in palliative care education and for significantly expanding palliative care services at the Mayo Clinic from oncology to patients with multiple conditions.
Jeanette Ross, M.D., AGSF, FAAHPM staff physician in geriatrics and palliative care at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System in San Antonio and director of Educational Initiatives for the geriatric and palliative medicine fellowships at the University of Texas Health Science Center, for advancing palliative care for veterans, as well as for using communications technology to enhance education and clinical practice in care near the end of life.
Nadia Tremonti, M.D., medical director for palliative care at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit and medical director for Kaleidoscope Kids Hospice at the Henry Ford Health System, for establishing and growing palliative care at Children’s Hospital, as well as for her communications skills with patients and their families and her excellence in mentoring colleagues on ways to alleviate the dying process.
2013 Awardees
Charles Sasser, MD, FACP, FAAHPM
The 2013 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in the senior physician category honor Charles G. Sasser, M.D., FACP, FAAHPM, director of palliative care services at Conway Medical Center in Conway, S.C.
Under Dr. Sasser’s leadership, Conway established the first interdisciplinary team for palliative care services in South Carolina – a team that included nurses, social workers, pastors, and physicians. A driving force behind Dr. Sasser’s pioneering work to establish an interdisciplinary team approach to palliative care is his belief “that the kind heart of the nurse, the logistical wisdom of the social worker, and the philosophical guidance of the pastor were just as important as the skills of the physician, and sometimes even more so,” said Martin A. Duclos, MD, codirector of Conway’s palliative care team.
The son of a country doctor, Dr. Sasser was practicing internal medicine when palliative care emerged as a new specialty. He soon moved to the forefront of the field. In his 45 years as a physician, he has been a model and mentor to generations of palliative care providers.
Those who have worked with Dr. Sasser describe his influence, skill, and humanity. “He has never failed to recognize each patient he has encountered with the utmost respect, and has treated each life as the unique, incredibly special gift that it is,” said his nominator, Patricia Douglas, Conway Medical Center’s staff chaplain.
Charles Sasser received his medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina in 1967.
Daniel C. Johnson, MD, FAAHMP
The 2013 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in the mid-career category honor Daniel C. Johnson, MD, FAAHMP, national physician lead for palliative care at Kaiser Permanente’s Care Management Institute, as well as director of Palliative Care Innovations and Development at Kaiser Permanente-Colorado and director of the Life Quality Institute in Denver. He is also a physician on the Palliative Care Consult Services at Exempla St. Joseph Hospital in Denver and Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette, Co.
Dr. Johnson led the expansion of services at Kaiser Permanente-Colorado, partnering with local organizations to more than quadruple patient and family access to end-of-life care. At the Life Quality Institute, an organization dedicated to advancing palliative care through education, he oversaw the development of its award-winning education program for medical students, residents, and other health professionals.
Dr. Johnson has championed an approach to palliative care that focuses on comprehensive, interdisciplinary team-based support for patients and their loved ones. This team approach, which was evaluated in Kaiser Permanente studies in the hospital, home, and outpatient settings, showed improved quality of care for seriously ill patients on measures that included patient satisfaction, communication, and reduced hospital admissions. Across Kaiser’s eight regions, Dr. Johnson’s leadership has helped to influence universal access to palliative care support in all Kaiser Permanente-affiliated hospitals and rapidly expanded access to palliative support in outpatient settings.
Dr. Johnson received his medical degree from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in 1997.
Drew Rosielle, MD
The 2012 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in the early-career physician category honor Drew Rosielle MD, a palliative care physician and program director of the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship at the University of Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis.
Dr. Rosielle is recognized for his expertise in and commitment to evidence-based palliative and end-of-life care and education. He is the editor of Fast Facts and Concepts, which provides concise, peer-reviewed, and evidence-based summaries on topics in palliative care for clinicians and trainees. He also founded Pallimed, an award winning and internationally recognized blog on hospice and palliative care. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Palliative Medicine and is a member of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine’s clinical education committee. Dr. Rosielle “focuses on a core element of palliative care – the patient, family, and friends as the unit of care,” said his nominator, Lyn Ceronsky, DNP, GNP, Director of Palliative Care at the University of Minnesota Medical Center and Fairview Southdale Hospital. “He exudes a solid and supportive presence for families.”
Dr. Rosielle received his medical degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 2002.
Alen Voskanian, MD
The 2012 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in the early-career physician category honor Alen Voskanian, MD, regional medical director of VITAS Innovative Hospice Care in Torrance, Calif.
Dr. Voskanian has expanded and developed innovative models of ambulatory palliative care and raised awareness of the benefits of palliative and end-of-life care through work with government agencies and professional organizations. In 2010, he was selected to participate in a California HealthCare Foundation Health Care Leadership Program, a fellowship that prepares health care professionals to assume significant roles in improving the state’s health care system. His project focused on initiating earlier palliative care outside the hospital setting.
An innovator, he was one of only 73 out of more than 900 applicants chosen to participate in the nationwide Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation Advisors project, which develops new ideas, models, and methods of health care delivery for Medicare and Medicaid. Dr. Voskanian’s work explored ways to increase ambulatory palliative care through education within health care and to increase public awareness through public policy.
Dr. Voskanian received his medical degree from the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine in 2000.
Jane deLima Thomas, MD
The 2012 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in the early-career physician category honor Jane deLima Thomas, MD, a palliative care physician and associate director of the Harvard Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Dr. Thomas is a leader among palliative care physicians and educators at Harvard Medical School. In her role with the fellowship program, she has had a major impact on the development of the field through training and modeling excellence in palliative practice. She instills in fellows the importance of empathy, compassion, competence, connectedness, and presence in palliative and end-of-life care.
Dr. Thomas is a nationally sought after speaker on the subject of navigating end-of-life conversations with patients, families, and teams. “She has the ability to comfortably and smoothly evaluate medical, psychosocial and spiritual aspects of a patient,” wrote her nominators, Janet Abrahm, MD, chief of the Division of Palliative Care, Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, and Susan Block, MD, chair of the Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Dr. Thomas received her medical degree from the University of Massachusetts School Medicine in 2000.
2012 Awardees
Janet Bull, MD.
The 2012 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in the senior career category honor Janet Bull, MD, chief medical officer and principal investigator of Four Seasons, a nonprofit hospice and palliative care organization that serves the Hendersonville and Asheville regions of western North Carolina.
A pioneer in establishing best practices in hospice and palliative care, Dr. Bull is passionately committed to improving the care of patients at the end of life – locally, nationally, and globally. She was instrumental in establishing the palliative care program at Four Seasons in 2003 and two years later founded what is now a nationally recognized clinical research department that studies methods to help lessen patients’ suffering. She has served as principal investigator on more than 30 clinical trials. She also designed the Palliative Care Immersion Course, an experiential learning program offered to clinicians from around the country, which trained more than 50 physicians in 2011.
In addition to speaking frequently on hospice and palliative medicine in the U.S., Dr. Bull has provided clinical, technical, and leadership support for the development of palliative care in Africa. In 2010 she traveled to Zambia to work with its palliative care association to create a strategic plan for training, educational exchange, and workforce and capacity development. While there, she helped establish a center of excellence for training and mentorship.
In nominating her, Chris Comeaux, president and chief executive officer of Four Seasons, said of Dr. Bull, “Her career path is marked by an unusual ability to draw together distinct poles: beginning of life and end of life, academic-based and community-based, research and clinical, and, by closing these gaps, clarify the meaning of high-quality, whole-person health care.”
Dr. Bull’s own words speak to her ability to find and learn from commonality across the entire spectrum of human experience. “I have probably attended as many deaths as I have births,” she said when asked recently about her relationship with patients. “I find the similarities uncanny. There is a sacredness that surrounds them both. A good birth and a good death are filled with the same ingredients – laughter, tears, peacefulness, joy, love and an incredible sense of awe. My purpose has been to help guide my patients through these transitions.”
She received her medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in 1981.
Michael Rabow, MD
The 2012 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in the mid-career category honor Michael W. Rabow, MD, professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and director of the Symptom Management Service at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, a leading outpatient palliative care consultation program.
Dr. Rabow serves as a consultant to hospitals throughout the country that are working to develop or expand their palliative care services. He is a member of the curriculum development committee of the national Palliative Care Leadership Center Initiative, which has trained more than 1,000 hospital-based palliative care programs in the United States. He is also the associate director of the UCSF Palliative Care Leadership Center and he developed and directs the Symptom Management Service, one of the first outpatient palliative care services in a comprehensive cancer center in the United States.
Dr. Rabow was assistant editor of the recently completed bimonthly section in the Journal of the American Medical Association entitled “Perspectives on Care at the Close of Life,” which became a palliative care textbook, Care at the Close of Life: Evidence and Experience (McGraw-Hill Professional, 2010). He is also the executive producer of The Caregivers, a documentary film and an accompanying caregiver handbook
His has published research on palliative care, family caregiving, and end-of-life care education and has given presentations around the country on pain management, care of family caregivers, communication, and artificial nutrition and hydration at the end of life. “There are people who are academic stars, who are great thinkers and writers,” wrote Jennifer Heidmann, MD, vice chair of the medical department of St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka, Calif., in her nomination letter. “Others excel at teaching, able to create perfect greenhouses for the growth of their students’ talent and enthusiasm. Some are effective practicing clinicians, healing and impacting people one at a time. Dr. Rabow is the rare complete package: scholar, teacher and healer extraordinaire.”
He received his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco, in 1993.
Justin N. Baker, MD, FAAP, FAAHPM
The 2012 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in the early-career physician category honor Justin N. Baker MD, FAAP, FAAHPM, who holds three positions at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis: director of the division of Palliative and End-of-Life Care, attending physician in the Quality of Life Service, and director of the Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Program. He is recognized for his outstanding leadership and research on palliative care for children.
Dr Baker has walked with many families as they battled pain, suffering, and psychosocial distress in the face of a child’s advancing cancer. He has cared for hundreds of dying children and their families and helped develop a model for delivering palliative care in a child’s “medical home” – wherever the child is receiving medical care. His efforts helped earn the Quality of Life Service the 2010 St Jude Outstanding Clinical Improvement Award. He is one of only a handful of physicians across the country with board certification in pediatrics, pediatric hematology/oncology, and hospice and palliative medicine.
Dr Baker’s research focuses on ethical considerations surrounding enrollment in Phase I clinical trials. He has participated in more than 25 studies related to pediatric palliative care and has written more than 50 manuscripts, abstracts, and book chapters on the subject. His research has demonstrated the powerful positive impact of integrating high quality palliative care into the ongoing care of children suffering from serious illnesses.
On top of a full schedule as a physician, Dr. Baker finds the time to be deeply involved in his community, from coaching youth soccer to serving as a college career leader at his church. In the words of his nominator, Liza-Marie Johnson, MD, MPH, a fellow in pediatric hematology/oncology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Dr Baker is “a tireless physician and researcher, a devoted husband and father, and a pillar of the Memphis community.”
He received his medical degree from University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio in 2001.
Jason Morrow, MD, PhD
The 2012 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in the early-career physician category honor Jason Morrow, MD, PhD, medical director of inpatient palliative care at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, for his advocacy in expanding palliative care services and his passion for educating medical students, residents, and other physicians in clinical practices and ethics.
Dr. Morrow’s advocacy and educational activities in palliative care have made him a role model. Clinicians have routinely sought his counsel in ethically complicated cases at University of Texas Health Science Center, as well as at Duke University Health System and Durham Regional Hospital, where he was a palliative care physician until July 2011.
He has received high praise for his skills as an educator. A point that he often emphasizes when teaching is that the best way to communicate with patients and their families is to listen, and not talk. “One of his greatest strengths is his ability to recruit those around him to advance the level of care provided to dying patients,” wrote Dr. David Gallagher, director of Duke University’s hospital medicine programs, in his nomination letter. “He is early in a career that is full of promise.”
Dr. Morrow received his medical degree and his doctorate in medical humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in 2004.
Theresa A. Soriano, MD, MPH
The 2012 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in the early-career physician category honor Theresa A. Soriano, MD, MPH, director of the Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. She is recognized for her advocacy and leadership in caring for underserved patients and bringing primary and palliative care to those who are homebound.
Under her leadership, the Visiting Doctors Program has created a safety net for more than 1,200 homebound patients and provided a comfortable setting for those who wish to die at home. “The success of the Visiting Doctors Program in providing end-of-life and primary care in a challenging health care environment is the result of Theresa Soriano’s advocacy, her passion for caring for the underserved, and her deep understanding of the importance of the person within the patient,” wrote David Muller, MD, dean for medical education at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in his nomination letter.
Even with her extensive administrative responsibilities, Dr. Soriano is in the trenches, delivering care to homebound patients and their caregivers, mainly in East Harlem and Washington Heights, two of New York’s most underserved neighborhoods. “Whether it is for the patient at the bedside, the trainee struggling to make sense of caring for someone at the end of life, the faculty member delicately balancing doing ‘the right thing’ with the demands of a career in academic medicine, budget negotiations with hospital administration, or lobbying in the state legislature, Dr. Soriano brings to bear her intellect, passion for justice, and keen interpersonal skills to get the job done,” Muller said.
She received her medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York in 2001.
2011 Awardees
Anne Allegre, MD, FACP, FAAHPM
The 2011 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in the senior physician category honor Ann Allegre, MD, FACP, FAAHPM, director of medical programs at Kansas City Hospice and Palliative Care in Kansas City, Mo.
Dr. Allegre is a pioneer in the fields of hospice care and palliative medicine. She began her career in general medicine and soon became interested in palliative medicine as a result of a personal experience with life-threatening illness. She joined Kansas City Hospice and Palliative Care in 1995 and became its first director of medical programs. In 1999, she became the founding medical director of the Palliative Care Consult Team at Providence Medical Center in Kansas City. “Ann Allegre has single-handedly developed and promoted palliative care throughout the Kansas City area,” says Jim Stoddard, DO, medical director of the palliative care team at North Kansas City Hospital.
Colleagues praise her remarkable communication skills, her holistic and spiritual approach to her patients and their families, and her finely honed clinical expertise. “Dr. Ann Allegre brought great technical skill, compassionately disguised as grace and comfort, to both my mother-in-law and my mother during their terminal illnesses,” said Robert Lyman Potter, MD, PhD. “Dr. Allegre is a spiritual exemplar who has shared herself with individuals like me while serving as a powerful ideal that has brought palliative care to amazing heights in Kansas City.”
Dr. Allegre is also an educator and mentor to other physicians. As an associate clinical professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Kansas, School of Medicine, she educates the next generation of physicians about end-of-life care. She is also active in the work of the Center for Practical Bioethics in Kansas City.
Dr. Allegre received her medical degree from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in 1977.
Stefan J. Friedrichsdorf, MD
The 2011 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in the early-career physician category honor Stefan J. Friedrichsdorf, MD, medical director of the Department of Pain Medicine, Palliative Care and Integrative Medicine at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, for innovative symptom management of pediatric patients, compassion, and family-centered care.
Dr. Friedrichsdorf is also the principal investigator of a five-year, multisite study on the creation, implementation and evaluation of a pediatric palliative care curriculum, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute. He lectures extensively nationally and internationally on pediatric pain medicine, palliative care and integrative medicine and has contributed to more than 15 books on the subjects.
Dr. Friedrichsdorf cares for children as inpatients and outpatients, as well as in their homes. “He has a profound ability to connect with patients and families in a nonthreatening way that builds trust and openness,” wrote Clark Smith, MD, Chief of Services, Pediatrics, Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, in nominating Dr. Friedrichsdorf. “He is known for his open-door policy and his willingness to do ‘curbside consults’ with family members, who as a result feel free to contact him to discuss their concerns.”
Before becoming a doctor, Dr. Friedrichsdorf worked as a factory worker, actor, assistant nurse, journalist, paramedic, and youth group leader. He received his medical degree from the Medical University of Lübeck in Germany in 1998 and studied pediatric palliative care and hospice in Australia and Poland.
Anthony Nicholas Galanos, MA, MD
The 2011 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in the midcareer physician category honor Anthony Nicholas Galanos, MA, MD, medical director of the Duke University Hospital Palliative Care Service in Durham, N.C. Dr. Galanos is also an associate professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics, at the Duke University Medical Center; a senior research fellow in Duke’s Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development; and an associate faculty scholar in the Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life.
For more than a decade, Dr. Galanos worked tirelessly to establish the palliative care service at Duke Hospital, and his efforts have resulted in a dramatic improvement in the quality of end-of-life care for patients, families, and providers. Last year, the service completed over 500 consults – most of them provided by Dr. Galanos himself. “His mastery of skills critical to outstanding palliative care physicians, such as communication, symptom management, psychosocial and spiritual support, and care coordination are best represented by the comments of those who directly benefit from his care – patients, families, and other providers,” said Kimberly S. Johnson, MD, assistant professor of pedicine, Duke University Medical Center, who nominated Dr. Galanos.
As one family member put it, “Palliative care, end-of-life care, comfort care – what you call it is not nearly so important as the end result: the offering of peace and dignity for a patient, a person, who is beginning to die. Losing someone you love causes indescribable pain that touches deep into one’s soul. Tony helps establish an atmosphere of calmness and acceptance that fosters a good death, one where the love we fear losing is in the end strengthened.”
Johnson also commented that the dialogue between Dr. Galanos and his patients is often filled with laughter and that he has the unique ability to get a laugh or smile from patients who are gravely ill, giving them something to focus on other than their illness.
Dr. Galanos received his MA in Clinical Psychology from the University of Dayton in 1978 and his MD from University of South Alabama in 1986.
Savithri Nageswaran, MBBS, MPH
The 2011 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in the early-career physician category honor Savithri Nageswaran, MBBS, MPH, director of the pediatric palliative care program at Brenner Children’s Hospital at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.
In 2008, Dr. Nageswaran developed the first pediatric palliative care program at Brenner Children’s Hospital. More than 200 children have received care from the program. She also conducts research on improving the health care of children with complex chronic conditions and works with multiple community agencies to improve communication between hospital-based and community-based providers. In addition, she teaches pediatric palliative care to medical students and resident physicians.
Dr. Nageswaran “is knowledgeable and skillful; compassionate to children and their families; and intellectually curious – characteristics that make her a role model for residents and medical students,” wrote Dr. Jon S. Abramson, Weston M. Kelsey Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatrics, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, in nominating her for the award.
“I appreciate the passion that she has about palliative care and its benefits to the patients,” wrote a Wake Forest medical student who supported Dr. Nageswaran’s nomination. “She cares about the well being, the comfort, and psychological care of the family and patients. It is very important that we encounter physicians who care about their patients and want to do what is best for them despite their prognosis.”
Dr. Nageswaran received her MBBS (the equivalent of a medical degree) from Kilpauk Medical College in India in 1991. She trained as a pediatric resident at Wake Forest and as a preventive medicine resident at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also earned an MPH.
Eric W. Widera, MD
The 2011 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in the early-career physician category honor Eric W. Widera, MD, director of the Hospice and Palliative Care Service of San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. In his work, which focuses on geriatrics and palliative medicine, he has passionately advocated for improving the care given to elderly patients with severe chronic conditions.
Stan Horn nominated Dr. Widera after seeing first hand the care that his brother received at the hospice unit of the VA Medical Center. “At our first meeting, Dr. Widera told us that we could call him Eric and he gave us his pager number,” he wrote. Horn detailed how Dr. Widera continued that level of caring and compassion both in treating his brother and in talking with family and friends even after his brother’s death. “Dr. Widera has shown a significant and diversified degree of leadership and impact as a role model for other physicians in the community.”
As a clinician-educator at University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Widera has been a driving force in a number of innovations, including the creation of a monthly interdisciplinary palliative care conference at the medical center. He has received numerous awards for his educational accomplishments. Most recently, he has been examining the role social media plays in the education of professionals in palliative medicine and is a cofounder ofgeripal.org, an online forum for health professionals in geriatrics and palliative medicine.
Dr. Widera received his medical degree from University of California, San Francisco, in 2002.
2010 Awardees
Robert A. Milch, MD, FACS, of The Center for Hospice and Palliative Care, near Buffalo, received the inaugural Cunniff-Dixon Hastings Center established physician award of $50,000. He has been involved with hospice and palliative care for more than 30 years, most of it at Hospice Buffalo, where he initially served as a volunteer medical director. Dr. Milch, a surgeon, was recognized for his longstanding commitment to and excellence in clinical care for patients with advanced illness and for his regional and national leadership in palliative care and surgery.
Elisabeth Potts Dellon, MD, MPH, of the University of North Carolina, was one of three nominees awarded the Cunniff-Dixon Hastings Center early-career physician award of $15,000. Dr. Dellon was chosen for her unique set of clinical skills in caring for children and young adults with advanced chronic lung disease.
Jeffrey N. Stoneberg, DO of San Diego Hospice and The Institute for Palliative Medicine was one of three nominees awarded the Cunniff-Dixon Hastings Center early-career physician award of $15,000. Dr. Stoneberg was awarded this prize for his outstanding clinical skills and achievements in growing the Scripps Mercy Palliative Medicine Consultation Service.
Eytan Szmuilowicz, MD, of Northwestern Medical Center in Chicago was one of three nominees awarded the Cunniff-Dixon Hastings Center early-career physician award of $15,000. Dr. Szmuilowicz was chosen for his devotion to and excellence in patient care, as well as his strong commitment to teaching and research on improving clinician training in end-of-life care.