An Aspinwall doctor is the recipient of a national award for providing exceptional palliative care for end-of-life patients in the Butler Health System.

Dr. Dillon Stein, 37, was awarded the 2022 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Award in May, an honor bestowed annually nationwide to five palliative care physicians.

Stein was recognized for his achievement during a June 30 ceremony at Butler Memorial Hospital. He described receiving the award as “humbling and overwhelming.”

“This award is chosen by a panel of individuals who lead hospice and palliative care in this country. To be seen as an exceptional early-career physician is just an incredible honor,” Stein said. “It was also validating and strengthened my sense that the palliative care team in Butler is doing special things and doing our part to take care of the community.”

An early-year physician is typically a doctor practicing within his or her first seven years of service.

Stein’s duties as medical director of palliative care at BHS include inpatient, outpatient and virtual services. He is the first doctor in the system to receive the award.

“When people hear ‘palliative care,’ I think a lot of people become scared because of the preconceived notion that it’s all about dying,” said Stein, noting some folks confuse it with hospice. “Palliative care is about a focus on living the best quality of life and understanding what is important to you and your family even when you may be dealing with a serious illness.”

The award is co-sponsored by Connecticut-based The Cunniff-Dixon Foundation and The Hastings Center of Garrison, N.Y., a bioethics research institute, recognizing physicians nationally for working with underserved or vulnerable populations.

The Cunniff-Dixon Foundation, which strives to enrich relationships between health care providers and patients nearing their end of life, created and funds the awards, which provide up to $25,000 for each recipient.

Stein was awarded $15,000, highlighting his leadership in advancing the art of medicine for patients near the end of life and for their families.

Candidates for the award are evaluated on personal integrity, technical competence, empathetic dialogue with patients, active engagement with families and compassionate alleviation of suffering.

Stein began the only outpatient palliative care clinic in Butler County, where he developed an interdisciplinary team with community partners to pool resources for the underserved population of rural Butler County.

Stein and his team also distribute care packages to fellow hospice and palliative care programs across the country. The packages include food items such as coffee, tea, snacks, candy, games, encouraging notes and personal items such as socks.

“Giving gifts is such an important part of life. Those gifts can be time or a smile and cost nothing at all,” Stein said.

Ken DeFurio, BHS president and CEO, praised Stein’s leadership and dedication.

“It takes a very special person to counsel and guide patients and their families when a terminal disease has been diagnosed,” DeFurio said. “And for a young physician to have the empathy and skills of Dr. Stein is remarkable. The foundation couldn’t have made a better selection.”

For Stein, choosing a career focused on palliative care allows him to experience an organic, human side to patients dealing with serious or life-limiting illnesses.

“For as long as I could remember, I wanted to be a doctor,” Stein said. “I went into medicine for what is likely the typical reasons. My hope was to help people.”

During his first year at Butler, Stein recalled, a young man was near death in the hospital. The man’s parent resided more than an hour away but was unable to secure transportation to the hospital.

“Recognizing the urgency and importance of this parent being at the hospital with the young man, our team covered an Uber ride to pick her (the parent) up and drive her to the hospital,” Stein said.

Partnering with a local Butler church and his team at BHS, Stein arranged the acquisition of a motorized wheelchair for a patient in need. Stein rented a moving van, secured the wheelchair and drove more than 70 miles round-trip to deliver the chair to the patient.

Stein grew up in North Huntingdon and graduated from Norwin High School in 2003.

He graduated from Alfred University in New York in 2007 and West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine in 2011.

He completed his internal medicine residency at West Penn Allegheny Health System and served as chief resident from 2011-15.

In 2016, Stein completed his hospice and palliative care fellowship at UPMC and began working at BHS that same year.

Stein resides in Aspinwall with his wife, Bethanie, and their three young children, Clara, 8, Beau, 5, and Eliza, 9 months.

Courtesy of Dr. Dillon Stein Bethanie Stein, 37, and her children, Clara, 8, Beau, 5, and Eliza, 9 months, all of Aspinwall, stand next to a sign in the lobby congratulating husband and dad, Dr. Dillon J. Stein, for his recent national award, the 2022 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Award for providing exceptional end-of-life care.  

Bethanie Stein said her husband’s dedication to helping others extends beyond a hospital setting.

“His gifts extend to the families he has touched in his short six years of service and to his colleagues and family,” she said. “I’m inspired by him on how his ‘job’ gives greater purpose to my life and time, in general.”

Dr. Stein was nominated for the award by his mentor, friend and colleague, Dr. Kathy Selvaggi, chief community health center officer at BHS.

Stein said he is most inspired by the life lessons of each of his patients.

“It’s hard to explain how incredible it is to sit with people dealing with serious illness and hear their stories, listen to their hopes and understand their fears. Those individuals and families are constant reminders on what it means to be part of something bigger than yourself,” he said.

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