The Roger C. Bone Advances in End-of-Life Care Award was created in 2000 to annually recognize a member of the American College of Chest Physicians who has demonstrated leadership in end-of-life care. As a physician coming to grips with his own terminal diagnosis, Dr. Bone wrote about the ethical and humanistic issues surrounding end-of-life decisions. He stressed the importance of communication among physicians and their patients. Dr. Bone was a Master Fellow and Past President of the ACCP.
Through a review committee of members from the ACCP Palliative and End-of-Life Care NetWork and other distinguished leaders in end-of-life care, recipients for this award are judged to have shown substantial improvement in the care of patients at the end of life as documented in a summary illustrating communication skills, cooperative spirit, support of palliative and hospice care, and use of pain management. The award recipient will receive a grant of $5,000 for his or her specific end-of-life care project.
Stephen C. Telatnik, MD, FCCP, Assistant Medical Director at Pike's Peak Hospice and 
Palliative Care, Colorado Springs, Colorado, was selected by the review committee as this year's recipient of the Roger C. Bone Advances in End-of-Life Care Award. The title of his project is "Initiation of Memorial Hospital (Colorado Springs) Palliative Intensive Care Unit: Consult in a Community Hospital." He has organized a team of palliative care doctors to work closely with all physicians in intensive care at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs. The team provides early support to family and staff of patients who are facing imminent loss of life and/or have a prolonged course in intensive care. His hospice and palliative interdisciplinary team have developed a video "The Choice Is Yours" and created a pamphlet Decisions About the End of Life.
Letters of Commendation have been mailed to two other candidates, who have submitted applications, for their outstanding leadership in end-of-life care in 2004:
Mellar P. Davis, MD, FCCP
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Cleveland, Ohio
Title of Project/Service: Advancement of Palliative Medicine Through Training, Education, and Research
Antonio Salud II, MD, MA
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Title of Project/Service: Provider Decision-Making at the End of Life in the ICU: A Discourse Analysis
The Roger C. Bone Advances in End-of-Life Care Review Committee was co-chaired by Rosemary H. Bone Mason, RN, and D. Robert McCaffree, MD, Master FCCP, and included ACCP members and distinguished doctors in end-of-life care: Russell A. Acevedo, MD, FCCP; Ira R. Byock, MD; Richard A. Dart, MD, FCCP; Judith E. Nelson, MD, FCCP; Paul A. Selecky, MD, FCCP; and Basil Varkey, MD, FCCP.