For her leading role in driving awareness and adoption of palliative care services in the United States, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) today awarded the Gustav O. Lienhard Award for Advancement of Health Care to Diane Meier, Director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care, and professor of geriatrics and palliative medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City. The award was presented to her at the National Academy of Medicine’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

As a geriatrician, Meier found that modern medicine’s focus on curing disease and prolonging life ignored crucial elements of patients’ and families’ distress, including pain, depression, anxiety, sleeplessness, and other symptoms. First at Mount Sinai, and then through the Center to Advance Palliative Care, Meier defined the components of palliative care and clarified its impact on the well-being of patients and families.

“Receiving this Award is an honor for me personally but most importantly, it signals the impact of thousands of my fellow clinicians working to provide an added layer of support towards the best possible quality of life for people living with serious illness,” said Dr. Meier. “The field owes its existence to the sustained investment of private sector philanthropy, lead among them the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, sponsor of this award. On behalf of the field and the patients and families we serve, our thanks to the NASEM for The Lienhard Award which will help us accelerate access to this evidence-based model of serious illness care.”

The full announcement can be found here.

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