SPPCP Renee Holder Literature Award

Renee Holder About Renee Holder

Renee M Holder, PharmD, BCPS, CPE served as a clinical pharmacy specialist with the Palliative Care team at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington DC and previously as an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Roseman University’s College of Pharmacy.  

She received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Midwestern University in 2009 and completed her two-year Pharmacotherapy Residency at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in 2011.  Initially practicing in critical care, nutrition and global health, Renee found a passion for treating patients at the end of life with a practice site at Nathan Adelson Hospice in Las Vegas and pursued additional training before ultimately joining the Palliative Care team at Medstar Washington Hospital Center.  

Dr Holder was a caring and empathetic teacher, pharmacist and friend.  She leaves a legacy as a prolific writer as well as a dedicated mentor to students, residents and learners of all kinds.   

About the Award

The SPPCP Renee Holder Literature Award was established in 2017 to recognize outstanding research conducted by SPPCP members.  It is named in honor and memory of Renee in recognition of her dedication to research and mentorship. SPPCP encourages applications for all types of published manuscripts that the member feels achieves excellence in originality, impact and quality, innovation and dissemination and rigor.  

Award Requirements

  • Deadline for application submission is January 31
  • The article submitted must have been published in a PubMed-indexed (or comparable database: CINAHL, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, or EMBASE), peer-reviewed biomedical journal between January 1 – December 31 of the application year.  Both print and electronic articles are eligible for consideration.
  • At least one of the authors must be a pharmacist member of the Society of Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacists (SPPCP) both at the time of application and at time of award acceptance.
  • The SPPCP member must submit the application. Indicate which authors are SPPCP member(s) in the citation with an asterisk (*).
  • The SPPCP member is responsible for informing co-author(s) of the award application.


Nomination Cycle

  • Announcement of award availability yearly in December
  • Nominations accepted until January 10th
  • Full applications due January 31st
  • Announcement of award in March - April
  • Presentation of award at SPPCP Virtual Conference or other national meeting in discussion with award winner


Past Winners

  • 2023: Fortunato J, Kullgren J, Houchard G, Hirsch J, Shirilla N, Bumb M, Li J. Oxycodone extended-release capsule utilization for pain management in a cancer palliative care clinic: a retrospective review.  J Pain Palliat Pharmacother 2023;37(4):286-297
  • 2022: Lockman K, Lowry MF, DiScala S, Lovell AG, Uritsky TJ, Kematick BS, Schmidt M, Wetshtein AM, Scullion B, Herndon CM, Atayee RS. Development of entrustable professional activities for specialist hospice and palliative care pharmacists. J Pain Symptom Manage 2022;64(1):37-48
  • 2021: Latuga NM, Grant PC, Levy K and Luczkiewicz DL. Treatment of positive urine cultures at end-of-life and the effect on terminal delirium management. Am J Hosp Palliat Med 2022;39(9):1014-1022
  • 2020: Lovell AG, McCrate Protus B, Dickman JR, Saphire ML. Palatability of crushed over-the-counter medications. J Pain Symptom Mange 2021;61(4):755 - 762
  • 2019: Edmonds KP, Saunders IM, Willeford A, Ajayi TA, Atayee RS. Emerging challenges to the safe and effective use of methadone for cancer-related pain in pediatric and adult patient populations. Drugs 2020;80(2):115-130
  • 2018: Lovell AG, McCrate Protus B, Saphire ML, Kale SS, Lehman A, Hartman A. Evaluation of QTc interval prolongation among patients with cancer using enteral methadone. Am J Hosp Palliat Med 2019:36(3):177-184
  • 2017: Waldfogel JM, Nesbit SA, Dy SM, Sharma R, Zhang A, Wilson LM, Bennett WL, Yeh H, Chelladurai Y, Feldman D, Robinson KA. Pharmacotherapy for diabetic peripheral neuropathy pain and quality of life. Neurology;2017:88:1-10