The 2011 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards in the senior physician category honor Ann Allegre, MD, FACP, FAAHPM, director of medical programs at Kansas City Hospice and Palliative Care in Kansas City, Mo.

Dr. Allegre is a pioneer in the fields of hospice care and palliative medicine. She began her career in general medicine and soon became interested in palliative medicine as a result of a personal experience with life-threatening illness. She joined Kansas City Hospice and Palliative Care in 1995 and became its first director of medical programs. In 1999, she became the founding medical director of the Palliative Care Consult Team at Providence Medical Center in Kansas City. “Ann Allegre has single-handedly developed and promoted palliative care throughout the Kansas City area,” says Jim Stoddard, DO, medical director of the palliative care team at North Kansas City Hospital.

Colleagues praise her remarkable communication skills, her holistic and spiritual approach to her patients and their families, and her finely honed clinical expertise. “Dr. Ann Allegre brought great technical skill, compassionately disguised as grace and comfort, to both my mother-in-law and my mother during their terminal illnesses,” said Robert Lyman Potter, MD, PhD. “Dr. Allegre is a spiritual exemplar who has shared herself with individuals like me while serving as a powerful ideal that has brought palliative care to amazing heights in Kansas City.”

Dr. Allegre is also an educator and mentor to other physicians. As an associate clinical professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Kansas, School of Medicine, she educates the next generation of physicians about end-of-life care. She is also active in the work of the Center for Practical Bioethics in Kansas City.
Dr. Allegre received her medical degree from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in 1977.