SPOKANE, Wash. — The Regence Foundation announced today it has honored Dr. James Shaw, director of ethics at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children’s Hospital and medical director at Providence Center for Faith and Healing, with a Sojourns Award.  The award is in recognition of Dr. Shaw’s leadership in advancing palliative care throughout the Spokane community, and he plans to donate the award’s $50,000 grant to Providence Center for Faith and Healing.  The center coordinates palliative care services for Providence in the Spokane community and offers a number of programs that support the role of spirituality in healing.

Palliative care is an approach to care that brings holistic relief and comfort to seriously ill patients and their families.  The award is part of The Regence Foundation’s Sojourns program which advances high-quality palliative care through grants, awards and technical assistance to hospitals and community organizations.  Through Sojourns, The Foundation aims to help people with life-threatening and incurable illness to access high-quality palliative care wherever they live and seek care.

"Dr. Shaw’s impressive accomplishments, his compassionate and ethical approach to patient care, and his increasing sphere of influence exemplify the caliber of leadership we seek to honor with the Sojourns Award," said Michael Alexander, Regence Foundation board chair.

Certified in Hospice and Palliative Medicine since 2005, Dr. Shaw founded the palliative care program at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in 2007. His influence spreads far beyond Spokane, however, as he as he works with other leaders to create an integrated palliative care service across the network of Catholic hospitals and medical facilities spanning from Alaska to California.

Letters in support of Dr. Shaw’s nomination call him a "driving force" behind an expansion of palliative care throughout the region, and a "fierce patient advocate" who helps primary physicians, medical staff and loved ones "downshift from aggressive medical combat to a palliative modality."