The 2013 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in the early-career physician category honor Jane deLima Thomas, MD, a palliative care physician and associate director of the Harvard Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Dr. Thomas is a leader among palliative care physicians and educators at Harvard Medical School. In her role with the fellowship program, she has had a major impact on the development of the field through training and modeling excellence in palliative practice. She instills in fellows the importance of empathy, compassion, competence, connectedness, and presence in palliative and end-of-life care.

Dr. Thomas is a nationally sought-after speaker on the subject of navigating end-of-life conversations with patients, families, and teams. “She has the ability to comfortably and smoothly evaluate medical, psychosocial and spiritual aspects of a patient,” wrote her nominators, Janet Abrahm, MD, chief of the Division of Palliative Care, Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, and Susan Block, MD, chair of the Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Dr. Thomas received her medical degree from the University of Massachusetts School Medicine in 2000.