NEW YORK, Oct. 27, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) is pleased to announce that its Director, Dr. Diane E. Meier, was recently elected to The Institute of Medicine (IOM), as one of 70 new members and 10 foreign associates. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.

As Director of CAPC, Dr. Meier leads 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. In addition to serving as CAPC's Director, Dr. Meier is also the Vice-chair for Public Policy and Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine; and Catherine Gaisman Professor of Medical Ethics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. In 2009-2010, she was a Health and Aging Policy Fellow in Washington, DC. Awards include a MacArthur Foundation 'genius award' Fellowship in 2008; HealthLeaders recognition as one of 20 Americans who make health care better in 2010; the American Cancer Society's 2012 Medal of Honor for Cancer Control in recognition of her pioneering leadership of the effort to bring palliative care into mainstream medicine; and the American Geriatrics Society Edward Henderson State-of-the-Art Lecture Award in 2013.

"We congratulate Dr. Meier on receiving this prestigious honor," said Dr. R. Sean Morrison, Professor, The Brookdale Department of Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Her election to the IOM is a wonderful endorsement of the respect her medical peers have for her accomplishments as a leader in the field of Palliative Medicine."

New members are elected by current active members through a selective process that recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health. IOM's charter ensures diversity of talent among the Institute's membership by requiring at least one-quarter of the members to be selected from fields outside the health professions, such as engineering, social sciences, law, and the humanities. The newly elected members raise IOM's total active membership to 1,753 and the number of foreign associates to 120. With an additional 93 members holding emeritus status, IOM's total membership is 1,966.

The Institute of Medicine is unique in its structure as both an honorific membership organization and an advisory organization. Established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, IOM has become recognized as a national resource for independent, scientifically informed analysis and recommendations on health issues. With their election, members make a commitment to volunteer their service on IOM committees, boards, and other activities. Projects during the past year include reports on delivering high-quality cancer care and variation in health care spending, as well as studies of environmental factors in breast cancer, health IT and patient safety, nutrition rating systems and graphics on food packaging, the scientific necessity of chimpanzees in research, establishing crisis standards of care during catastrophic disasters, improving care for epilepsy, and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.

About the Center to Advance Palliative Care

The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) provides healthcare professionals with the tools, training, and technical assistance necessary to start and sustain successful palliative care programs in hospitals and other health care settings. Located at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, CAPC is a national organization dedicated to increasing the availability of quality palliative care services for people facing serious illness. http://www.capc.org and http://www.getpalliativecare.org

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Center to Advance Palliative Care Director, Dr. Diane E. Meier, Honored with Election to Institute of Medicine