The Third Annual Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Award

The 2012 recipients of the third annual Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards were just recently announced. I was honored to be one of the recipients of this award last year, but am humbled by this year’s awardees. Richard Payne said it best in the Hastings Center press release: “This year’s winners emerged from an exceptionally strong field of nominees and serve as models of competent, caring, compassionate doctoring.”

The awardees for the 2012 year are:

Senior Physician Award: 

• Janet Bull, MD.  Janet is the chief medical director and principal investigator of Four Seasons, a nonprofit hospice and palliative care organization in North Carolina. She is a role model for many palliative care clinicians thanks to her work that combines both clinical practice, research, and local and national leadership in hospice and palliative care. 

Mid-Career Award: 

• Michael Rabow, MD.  Mike is a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). In addition to being one of the nicest palliative care doctors I have ever met, Mike is one of the true visionaries in palliative care. Among his numerous accomplishments, Mike developed one of the first outpatient palliative care clinics in the US, the Symptom Management Service at UCSF Hellen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Care Center. 

Early-career Awards: 

• Justin N. Baker, MD. Justin directs the Division of Palliative and End-of-Life Care and the Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He was recognized for his outstanding leadership and research in pediatric palliative care.

• Jason Morrow, MD, PhD. Jason is the Medical Director of inpatient palliative care at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Jason was recognized “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. Theresa runs the Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. She is being recognized in part for her advocacy and leadership in caring for underserved patients and bringing primary and palliative care to those who are homebound. 

A very big congratulations to all the awardees.  Thank you for all your hard work.

by: Eric Widera