Hastings Center Announces New Award for Exemplary End-of-Life Care for Vulnerable and Underserved

The award is named in honor of Dr. Richard Payne, an internationally acclaimed leader in palliative care. At the time of his death, Dr. Payne was a Trustee of the Cunniff Dixon Foundation and a member of The Hastings Center’s Board of Directors. For many years, Dr. Payne led the selection committee for The Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards which honor physicians for exemplary care of people nearing the end of life and always sought to recognize those who represented what he loved to call “good doctoring.”

The Hastings Center and The Cunniff-Dixon Foundation are pleased to launch the  Dr. Richard Payne Leadership Award. The $25,000 award is intended to honor a physician demonstrating strong leadership in palliative care, specifically with underserved and vulnerable populations. The award will be given in 2022 and every other year thereafter.

The nomination deadline is January 31, 2022.

“The Hastings Center and Cunniff-Dixon Foundation are proud to pay tribute to Dr. Payne and recognize an honorable and selfless leader in the field of palliative medicine, said Mildred Solomon, President of The Hastings Center. 

“A consummate professional and enlightened, and compassionate human being, Dr. Richard Payne served tirelessly. We now look forward to honoring a palliative care physician, serving the underserved,  going above and beyond providing the kind of quality care near the end of life that we all wish for ourselves and our loved ones,” stated Andy Baxter, Founder of the Cunniff-Dixon Foundation.

The Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards selection committee is chaired by Kathleen Foley, MD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and includes Anthony N. Galanos, MD, Duke University School of Medicine; Rodney Tucker, MD, UAB Center for Palliative and Supportive Care; Diane Meier, MD, Mt. Sinai Hospital and Center to Advance Palliative Care; and Zara Cooper, MD, MSc, FACS, Kessler Director of the Center for Surgery and Public Health in the Department of Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.   

For more information please contact:  

Susan Gilbert

Director of Communications

The Hastings Center

 gilberts@thehastingscenter.org