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Jim Yong Kim, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities, last month received the Hippocrates Society’s 2006 Humanitarian Award, which is annually bestowed upon BWH physicians whose work enriches the world and improves the lives of others.
“BWH’s strong commitment to bringing the best medicine to the sickest and neediest people wherever they are is at the core of the hospital’s mission,” said Kim, who received the award at the Hippocrates Society’s annual dinner in June. “I could not be more honored to receive the Humanitarian Award, but I accept it in full recognition that there are many hundreds of caregivers throughout the hospital making good on this commitment every day.”
The Hippocrates Society, founded in 2002, recognizes BWH physicians who have made significant philanthropic contributions to the hospital.
Kim has dedicated his life to fighting disease among the world’s poor. He committed to this goal early in his career when he founded the non-profit organization Partners In Health (PIH) in 1987 with Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, while they were students at Harvard Medical School. PIH now supports a range of health programs in poor communities in Haiti, Peru, Russia, Rwanda and Boston. While working in Lima, Peru, in the mid-1990s, Kim and Farmer developed an individualized treatment program for multi drug-resistant tuberculosis, which was the first large-scale treatment of this disease in a poor country. Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) endorses this treatment model, and programs are operating in more than 35 nations.
Similarly, PIH pioneered a successful HIV-treatment initiative in rural Haiti. In 2004, the WHO asked Kim to lead its first major effort to promote treatment for AIDS patients worldwide.