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Diane E. Meier, MD, FACP

Dr. Diane E. Meier is Director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC), a national organization devoted to increasing the number and quality of palliative care programs in the United States. Under her leadership the number of palliative care programs in U.S. hospitals has more than tripled in the last 10 years. She is also Vice-Chair for Public Policy and Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine; Catherine Gaisman Professor of Medical Ethics; and was the founder and Director of the Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute from 1997-2011, all at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. 

Dr. Meier is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2008 MacArthur Fellowship―a $500,000, no-strings-attached “genius award” for individuals who have shown exceptional creativity in their work and the promise to do more. She was named one of 20 People Who Make Healthcare Better in the U.S. by HealthLeaders Media 2010 and received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Oberlin College in 2010. In 2012, she was awarded American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor for Cancer Control in recognition of her pioneering leadership of the effort to bring non-hospice palliative care into mainstream medicine and received the American Geriatrics Society Edward Henderson State-of-the-Art Lecture Award in 2013. Other honors include the Open Society Institute Faculty Scholar’s Award of the Project on Death in America, the Founders Award of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization 2007, AARP’s 50th Anniversary Social Impact Award 2008, Castle Connelly’s Physician of the Year Award 2009 and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Lifetime Achievement Award 2009. She is currently Principal Investigator of an NCI-funded five-year multisite study on the outcomes of hospital palliative care services in cancer patients. Dr. Meier served as one of Columbia University’s Health and Aging Policy Fellows in Washington DC during the 2009-2010 academic year, working both on the Senate’s HELP Committee and the Department of Health and Human Services. 

Dr. Meier has published more than 200 original peer review papers, and several books. Her most recent book, Meeting the Needs of Older Adults with Serious Illness: Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of Health Care Reform, was published by Humana in 2014. She edited the first textbook on geriatric palliative care, as well as four editions of Geriatric Medicine. As one of the leading figures in the field of palliative medicine, Dr. Meier has appeared numerous times on television and in print, including ABC World News Tonight, Open Mind with Richard Hefner, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, the New Yorker, AARP, and Newsweek. She figured prominently in the Bill Moyers series "On Our Own Terms", a four-part documentary aired on PBS. 

Diane E. Meier received her BA from Oberlin College and her MD from Northwestern University Medical School. She completed her residency and fellowship training at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. She has been on the faculty of the Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine and Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai since 1983. She lives in New York City.

Books:

  • Kelley AS, Meier DE, (eds.). Meeting the Needs of Older Adults with Serious Illness: Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of Health Care Reform. Humana Press: 2014. ISBN 9781493904068
  • Hughes RG, Isaacs SL, Meier DE, (eds). Palliative Care: Transforming the Care of Serious Illness. Wiley/Jossey-Bass: March 2010. ISBN 9780470527177
  • Cassel CK, Leipzig RM, Cohen HJ, Larson EB, Meier DE, (eds). Geriatric Medicine. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0387955143
  • Cassel CK, Leipzig RM, Cohen HJ, Larson EB, Meier DE, eds. Geriatric Medicine: An Evidence-Based Approach. 4th ed. New York: Springer-Verlag, 2003. ISBN 0387955143
  • Morrison RS, Meier DE (eds). Geriatric Palliative Care. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0195141911

Selected Publications:

  • Meier DE, Lim B, Carlson MD. Raising the standard: palliative care in nursing homes. Health Aff (Millwood). 2010 Jan-Feb;29(1):136-40. PMID 20048372
  • Meier DE, Casarett DJ, von Gunten CF, Smith WJ, Storey CP. Palliative Medicine: Politics and Policy. J Palliat Med. 2009 Dec 31. PMID 20043709
  • Adler ED, Goldfinger JZ, Kalman J, Park ME, Meier DE. Palliative care in the treatment of advanced heart failure. Circulation. 2009 Dec 22;120(25):2597-606. Review. PMID 20026792
  • Meier, DE; Morrison, RS. Palliative Care. N Engl J Med. 2004 (June)
  • Meier DE; Thar W; Jordan A; Goldhirsch SL; Siu A; Morrison RS. Integrating case management and palliative care. J Pall Med. 2004; Feb. 7(1):119-134
  • Meier DE. When pain and and suffering do not require a prognosis: Working toward meaningful hospital-hospice partnership. J Pall Med. 2003; 6:109-115
  • Meier DE, Morrison RS. Autonomy reconsidered. N Engl J Med 2002 Apr 4;346(14):1087-1089
  • Meier DE. United States: Overview of cancer pain and palliative care. J Pain Symptom Manage 2002 Aug;24(2):265-269.
  • Meier DE. Palliative care programs: what, why, and how?. Physician Exec 2001 Dec;27(6):43-47
  • Meier D, Ahronheim JC, Morris J, Baskin-Lyons S, Morrison R. High short-term mortality in hospitalized patients with advanced dementia: lack of benefit of tube feeding. Arch Intern Med 2001 Feb 26;161(4):594-9
  • Meier DE, Back AL, Morrison RS. The inner life of physicians and care of the seriously ill. JAMA 2001 Dec 19;286(23):3007-3014
  • Nierman DM, Schechter CB, Cannon LM, Meier DE. Outcome prediction model for very elderly critically ill patients. Crit Care Med 2001 Oct;29(10):1853-1859
  • Carney MT, Meier DE. Palliative care and end-of-life issues. Anesthesiol Clin North America 2000 Mar;18(1):183-209
  • Morrison R, Siu A, Leipzig R, Cassel C, Meier D. The hard task of improving the quality of care at the end of life. Arch Intern Med 2000 Mar 27;160(6):743-7
  • Manfredi PL, Morrison R, Morris J, Goldhirsch S, Carter J, Meier D. Palliative care consultations: how do they impact the care of hospitalized patients?. J Pain Symptom Manage 2000 Sep;20(3):166-73
  • Meier DE, Lim B, Carlson MD. Raising the standard: palliative care in nursing homes. Health Aff (Millwood). 2010 Jan-Feb;29(1):136-40. PMID 20048372
  • Meier DE, Casarett DJ, von Gunten CF, Smith WJ, Storey CP. Palliative Medicine: Politics and Policy. J Palliat Med. 2009 Dec 31. PMID 20043709
  • Weissman DE, Meier DE. Operational features for hospital palliative care programs: consensus recommendations. J Palliat Med. 2008 Nov;11(9):1189-94. PMID 19021479
  • Ferrell B, Connor SR, Cordes A, Dahlin CM, Fine PG, Hutton N, Leenay M, Lentz J, Lund-Person J, Meier DE, Zuroski K. The national agenda for quality palliative care: The National Consensus Project and the National Quality Forum. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2007;33:737-744. 
  • Morrison RS, Meier DE, Fischberg D, Moore C, Degenholtz H, Litke A, Maroney-Galin C, Siu AL. Improving the management of pain in hospitalized adults. Arch Intern Med. 2006;166:1033-1039. 
  • Meier DE. Palliative care as a quality improvement strategy for advanced, chronic illness. J Healthcare Quality. 2005;27: 33-39. 
  • Nelson JE, Meier DE, Litke A, Natale DA, Siegel RE, Morrison RS. The symptom burden of chronic critical illness. Crit Care Med. 2004;32:1527-1534