Physicians receive awards for service to patients near end of life
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Five physicians received Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in recognition of their exemplary service to patients near the end of life.
The awards honor physicians for contributions to medical practice, teaching, research or community.
Two physicians received $25,000 awards.
- Rodney O. Tucker, MD, MMM, FAAHPM, received the Senior Physician Award. Tucker is director of the UAB Center for Palliative and Supportive Care and Christine S. Ritchie endowed chair in palliative care leadership at The University of Alabama at Birmingham. His work is intended to improve the delivery of health care and palliative care across settings.
- Julie Wilson Childers, MD, MS, FAAHPM, received the Mid-Career Physician Award. Childers is medical director of the palliative care service at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh and senior associate with VitalTalk. Her writing and teaching work has focused on goals-of-care discussions and managing addiction among patients who are nearing the end of life.
Three early-career physicians received $15,000 awards. They were:
- Meaghann Weaver, MD, MPH, FAAP — Weaver is division chief of pediatric palliative care at Children’s Hospital and Medical Center and University of Nebraska Medical Center. Her research focuses on interventions to improve pediatric palliative care delivery and health equity.
- Katharine Brock, MD, MS — Brock, whose primary focus area is pediatric palliative oncology, is assistant professor of pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She also is director of the Supportive Care Clinic at Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, as well as attending physician on the interdisciplinary pediatric advanced care team. Brock is co-director of her institution’s pediatric communication series, which uses simulation-based training to teach best-practice communication techniques to pediatric residents and fellows.
- Claire Ankuda, MD, MPH — Ankuda is assistant professor in the department of geriatrics and palliative medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She conducts health services research to assess how payment policies — particularly Medicare policy — affect outcomes for seriously ill older adults and their families.
The Cunniff-Dixon Foundation, dedicated to enriching the relationship of physicians and patients near the end of life, established and funds the awards. The Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute, co-sponsors the awards.
“The Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards have been celebrating exceptional doctoring near the end of life for the past 10 years,” Mildred Z. Solomon, president of The Hastings Center, said in a press release. “May we all experience a moment of gratitude as we recognize this year’s extraordinary honorees for their clinical contributions and commitment to patients, families and communities.”