Diane E. Meier, MD, FACP, FAAHPM

Dr. Diane E. Meier, FACP, FAAHPM, is director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care, a national organization devoted to increasing access to quality palliative care in the United States for people living with a serious illness and their families. Under her leadership the number of palliative care programs in U.S. hospitals has more than tripled in the last ten years. She is codirector of the Patty and Jay Baker National Palliative Care Center; professor of geriatrics and palliative medicine and Catherine Gaisman Professor of Medical Ethics; and was the founder and, from 1997 to 2011, director of the Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute, all at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

Dr. Meier was named one of “20 People Who Make Healthcare Better in the United States” by HealthLeaders Media in 2010, and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2013. In 2017 she received both the Gustav O. Lienhard Award of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Hospital Association’s HRET TRUST Award. In September 2008 she was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Dr. Meier served as a Health and Aging Policy Fellow in Washington, DC, in 2009–10, working on the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) and at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Meier has published more than two hundred works in peer-reviewed medical literature. Her most recent book, Meeting the Needs of Older Adults with Serious Illness: Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of Health Reform, was published by Humana in 2014.

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 Affairs (Millwood) 2010 Jan-Feb;29(1):136-40. PMID 20048372
• 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
• Weissman DE, Meier DE. Operational features for hospital palliative care programs: consensus recommendations. Journal of Palliative Medicine 2008 Nov;11(9):1189-94. PMID 19021479
• 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. Archives of Internal Medicine 2006;166:1033-1039.
• Meier DE. Palliative care as a quality improvement strategy for advanced, chronic illness. Journal of Healthcare Quality 2005;27: 33-39.
• Meier, DE; Morrison, RS. Palliative Care. New England Journal of Medicine 2004 (June)
• Meier DE; Thar W; Jordan A; Goldhirsch SL; Siu A; Morrison RS. Integrating case management and palliative care. Journal of Palliative Medicine 2004; Feb. 7(1):119-134
• Meier DE, Morrison RS. Autonomy reconsidered. New England Journal of Medicine 2002 Apr 4;346(14):1087-1089
• 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
• Morrison R, Siu A, Leipzig R, Cassel C, Meier D. The hard task of improving the quality of care at the end of life. Archives of Internal Medicine 2000 Mar 27;160(6):743-7

Selected Original Peer-Reviewed Reports:

• Cassel JB, Spragens L, Bowman B, Rogers M, Meier DE. Palliative Care Leadership Centers are key to the diffusion of palliative care innovation. Health Affairs 2018;37:231-9.
• Meier DE, Back AL, Berman A, Block SD, Corrigan JM, Morrison RS. A national strategy for palliative care. Health Affairs 2017;36(7):1265-73.
• Spetz J, Dudley N, Trupin L, Rogers M, Meier DE, Dumanovsky T. Few hospital palliative care teams meet national staffing recommendations. Health Affairs 2016;35:1690-7.
• Meier DE. Measuring quality of care for the sickest patients. NEJM Catalyst February 2016 - http://catalyst.nejm.org/measuring-quality-of-care-for-the-sickest-patients/
• Dumanovsky T, Rogers M, Spragens LH, Morrison RS, Meier DE. Impact of staffing on access to palliative care in U.S. hospitals. Journal of Palliative Medicine 2015;18:998-9.
• Peter May, Melissa M Garrido, J Brian Cassel, Amy Kelley, Diane E. Meier, Charles Normand, Thomas J Smith, Lee Stefanis, and R. Sean Morrison. Prospective cohort study of hospital palliative care teams for inpatients with advanced cancer: earlier consultation is associated with larger cost-saving effect. Journal of Clinical Oncology 2015;33:1-10.
• Meier DE. Focusing together on the needs of the sickest 5%, who drive half of all healthcare spending. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2014;62:1970-72.
• Meier DE. ‘I don’t want Jenny to think I’m abandoning her’: views on overtreatment. Health Affairs 2014;33(8):1492
• Tamura MK, Meier DE. Five policies to promote palliative care for patients with end stage renal disease. Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology 2013, June 6.
• Unroe K, Meier DE. Quality of hospice care for individuals with dementia. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2013; 61:1212-14.
• Smith TJ, Temin S, Alesi ER, Abernethy AP, Balboni TA, Basch EM, Ferrell BR, Loscalzo M, Meier DE et al. American Society of Clinical Oncology provisional clinical opinion: the integration of palliative care into standard oncology care. Journal of Clinical Oncology 2012;30:880-7.
• Morrison RS, Augustin R, Souvanna P, Meier DE. America’s care of serious illness: a state-by-state report card on access to palliative care in our nation’s hospitals. Journal of Palliative Medicine 2011; 14:1094-6.
• Meier DE. Increased access to palliative care and hospice: Opportunities to improve value in healthcare. Millbank Quarterly 2011;89:343-380.
• Morrison RS, Dietrich J, Ladwig S, Quill T, Sacco J, Tangeman J, Meier DE. Palliative care consultation teams reduce hospital costs for Medicaid beneficiaries. Health Affairs 2011;30:454-463.
• Carlson MD, Lim B, Meier DE. Strategies and innovations for delivering palliative care in nursing homes. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association 2011;12:91-98.
• Kelley A, Meier DE. Palliative care: A shifting paradigm. New England Journal of Medicine 2010;363:781-2.
• Meier DE, Lim B, Carlson, MD. Raising the standard: Palliative care in nursing homes. Health Affairs 2010;29:136-40.