Names and Faces

16th Annual Mannick Awards

From left: Drs. Damanpreet Bedi, Eric Sheu, Michael Zinner, John Mannick, Herbert Hechtman, Binh Nguyen, Stefan Tullius, Barry Gibney and C Keith Ozaki.

The 16th annual John A. Mannick Award was awarded to Damanpreet Bedi, MD, Binh Nguyen, MD, Barry Gibney, DO, and Eric Sheu, MD. This award recognizes the BWH Surgery residents’ work in basic science, clinical or outcomes research. The award is named after John A. Mannick, MD, who served as the chief of Surgery at BWH from 1976 until his retirement in 1994. Mannick is still a leader in the field of vascular surgery research and maintained a laboratory at the Brigham, which was continuously funded by the NIH for over 40 years. He continues to make contributions in the field of shock, sepsis and the management of burn patients, utilizing his studies of the role of the immune system in these disorders.

Bates Receives First Baughman Faculty Mentoring Award

David Bates during the Jan. 28 Education Grand Rounds.

Kenneth L. Baughman, MD, was known throughout the hospital for his incredible dedication to the career development of faculty.

On Jan. 28, his legacy was honored during an Education Grand Rounds when the Department of Medicine awarded the first Kenneth L. Baughman Faculty Mentoring Award to David W. Bates, MD, in recognition of his demonstrated commitment to effective mentoring through guiding and encouraging faculty career development.

“Ken was an inspiration to many people in so many ways,” Bates said. “It’s humbling to receive this award in his name and a privilege to be able to carry on the tradition of something that was so important to him.”

Nomination letters written by Bates’ colleagues are a testament to the ways in which he exemplifies the spirit of the award.

“David was incredibly supportive, yet also realistic and honest,” wrote one colleague.

Another added, “I always know the advice David gives me is in my best interest, not his own, and he is truly looking for me to succeed.” His nominators also noted his commitment to providing his mentees with content expertise and opportunities for participation in research projects, committees and speaking engagements.

Bates has made significant contributions in the areas of patient safety, medical informatics, clinical decision-making, qualityand cost-effectiveness. He joined the Department of Medicine 20 years ago and has been the division chief for General Internal Medicine and Primary Care since 1998. He is also the medical director of Clinical and Quality Analysis for Partners HealthCare, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and professor of health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health. He also serves as external program lead for patient safety research for the World Health Organization.

Farmer Appointed to Kolokotrones University Professorship

Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at BWH and chair of the HMS Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, was appointed to the Kolokotrones University Professorship, the university’s highest distinction for a faculty member. A leading figure in the Harvard Institute for Global Health, Farmer is widely known as co-founder of Partners In Health (PIH), the international humanitarian organization that works cooperatively with communities to combat disease in resource-poor settings. With the team at PIH, Farmer has played a key role in mobilizing relief efforts after such devastating disasters as the earthquake in Haiti and in the advancement of community-based strategies for treating AIDS and tuberculosis among populations living in extreme poverty. He has been involved in the construction or renovation of dozens of hospitals and clinics in Latin America and Africa, and has trained hundreds of physicians from Harvard Medical School and across the world.

Loughlin Elected as Trustee to American Board of Urology

Kevin R. Loughlin, MD, MBA, of the Division of Urology, was elected as a Trustee of the American Board of Urology. He is one of two individuals elected this year and will serve from 2011 to 2016. The American Board of Urology is organized to encourage study, improve standards and promote competency in the practice of Urology.

Brenner Receives Narins Award

Barry M. Brenner, MD, director emeritus of BWH’s Renal Division and Samuel A. Levine Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, received the American Society of Nephrology’s Robert G. Narins Award, which honors those who have made substantial contributions to education and teaching. Over his extensive career of teaching and research, Brenner has focused on mechanisms of glomerular function in health and disease, for which he is generally considered the world’s leading authority. He has held 25 editorial board appointments, published more than 650 scientific articles, edited 48 books and participated in more than 300 visiting lectures and/or professorships. He has received numerous awards and accolades and has also received honorary degrees from Harvard University, Long Island University, Université de Paris and Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Pennell Elected to American Epilepsy Society

Page Pennell, MD, was elected a board director of the American Epilepsy Society (AES) during its 64th annual meeting and scientific conference held in December in San Antonio, Texas. An associate professor at Harvard Medical School and director of research for the E.B. Bromfield Epilepsy Program at BWH, Pennell is an internationally recognized expert in gender-specific issues for women and men with epilepsy, and former director of the epilepsy program at Emory University, Atlanta. Pennell has been actively involved with AES, including service as chair of the Clinical Therapeutics Committee, chair of the Task Force on Health Care Reform, vice-chair of the Practice Committee and co-chair of the Special Interest Groups on Pregnancy Outcomes and Issues of Concern for Women with Epilepsy. She has also served on the Society’s Annual Course Committee, and Continuing Medical Education (CME) Committee. AES is the 3,000 member society of physicians, scientists and allied health professionals dedicated to the prevention, treatment and cure of epilepsy.

Zinner Elected to the ACS Board of Governors

Michael J. Zinner, MD, FACS, was elected to the American College of Surgeons Board of Regents. Zinner is the clinical director for Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center and surgeon-in-chief at BWH. He is also Moseley Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. An ACS Fellow since 1983, Zinner has served in several ACS capacities, including liaison to the ACS Board of Governors’ Committee on Surgical infections and Environmental Risks, a member of the Surgical Research Committee and vice-chair and chair of the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors. He currently serves on the Public Profile and Communications Steering Committees.

Poon Among Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Clinical Informaticists

Eric Poon, MD, MPH, director of Clinical Informatics, Information Systems, at BWH, was selected as one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Clinical Informaticists. The program recognizes medical professionals who excel at using patient-care data to improve clinical and financial performance of their healthcare organizations. To make the list, individuals must also demonstrate a willingness to share expertise with others in the field of clinical informatics and assume a leadership position in clinical informatics outside of the candidate’s own organization or company. In his four years as director of Clinical Informatics, Poon has helped lead a range of initiatives, including the design and implementation of the electronic medication-administration system with bar-code verification and the LMR outpatient test results management module. He also conducted research on topics such as computerized physician-ordered entry adoption, and this year was the lead author on a study showing a link between bar-coding technology and improved medication safety.

Antman Honored with James B. Herrick Award

Elliott Antman, MD, a senior cardiologist at BWH, is the 2010 recipient of the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Council on Clinical Cardiology’s highest honor, the James B. Herrick Award. The award, given annually since 1968, is named for James B. Herrick, a pioneering researcher and clinician in the field of cardiology. Each year, the council presents the award to one physician whose scientific achievements have contributed profoundly to the advancement and practice of clinical cardiology. Antman is recognized as an internationally acclaimed academic cardiologist, an empathetic clinician and brilliant educator with extraordinary abilities which have benefited many thousands of patients, students and peers during his 30-year career.

Silberstein Receives Emily Cooley Memorial Award

Leslie Silberstein, MD, director of the joint program in Transfusion Medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston, BWH and DFCI and Harvard Medical School professor of Pathology (Pediatrics), was honoured with the Emily Cooley Memorial Award at the 2010 American Association of Blood Banks Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore in October. This award began as a lectureship in 1963 and was designated as a Memorial Award in 1983. Recipients of this award have demonstrated teaching ability and have made a major contribution to the field of immunohematology and transfusion medicine or cellular therapies. Silberstein was honored with the Emily Cooley Memorial Award and presented a lecture titled “Translation of Cell Based-Therapies,” illustrating the therapeutic use of specific hematopoietic cell populations for immunotherapy of cancer and infectious diseases, gene therapy for immunodeficiency disorders and stem cell therapy for diseased or damaged tissues. Silberstein also is the director of the Center for Human Cell Therapy Boston at the Immune Disease Institute/Programs in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston.

Schneeweiss Appointed to PCORI Methodology Committee

Sebastian Schneeweiss, MD, ScD, vice chief and director of Drug Evaluation and Outcomes Research for BWH’s Division of Pharmacoepidemiolgy and Pharmacoeconomics, was appointed to the Methodology Committee of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).

The committee is responsible for helping PCORI develop and update methodological standards and guidance for comparative clinical effectiveness research. Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, announced the appointment of Schneeweiss and 14 other members in January.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act authorized PCORI as a non-profit corporation to assist patients, clinicians, purchasers and policymakers in making informed health decisions by providing quality, relevant evidence on how best to prevent, diagnose, treat and monitor diseases and other health conditions.

Schwartz Center Compassionate Caregiver Award Finalist

Jo Shapiro, MD, chief of Otolaryngology, was named a finalist for the Schwartz Center Compassionate Caregiver Award, given by the Boston-based Kenneth B. Schwartz Center. The award, now in its 12th year, recognizes the Massachusetts caregiver who best personifies the mission of the Schwartz Center to support and advance compassionate health care in which caregivers, patients and their families relate to one another in a way that provides hope to the patient, support to caregivers and sustenance to the healing process. The Schwartz Center recognized Shapiro for her generosity with her time, her optimism and her ability to translate complex information into terms her patients will understand.

Bonventre Named American Society of Nephrology President

During the December American Society of Nephrology’s (ASN) 43rd Annual Meeting, the society named Joseph V. Bonventre, MD, PhD, FASN, as its new president. The ASN has more than 12,000 members from 61 countries with 75 percent of them residing outside the U.S. Bonventre is the Samuel A. Levine professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and BWH’s chief of the Renal Division and Bioengineering Division. He studies the mechanisms of cellular and tissue injury and repair in the kidney, with particular emphasis on inflammation, biomarkers, stem cells and the determinants of abnormal repair leading to chronic kidney disease. He has received a number of awards, as well as honorary doctorate degrees from Mt. Saint Mary’s College and the Norwegian Institute of Science and Technology in Norway.

Interactive Medical Cases Awarded

BWH partnered with the New England Journal of Medicine to produce interactive medical cases a year ago. The Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange selected this tool as the recipient of its award in the e-learning category during the 2010 MITX Interactive Awards, the largest and most prestigious awards competition in the country for interactive and web innovations.

BWH’s Graham McMahon, MD, MMSC, Joel Katz, MD, Bruce Levy, MD, and Joseph Loscalzo, MD, PhD, with case developer John Ross, lead the project.

More than 50,000 users have completed the free cases since they were created.

The cases are free and available online at www.nejm.org/multimedia/interactivemedicalcase

DOM Honors Staff for Mentorship

The Department of Medicine hosted its eleventh Annual Education Celebration in January to honor medical residents and their faculty mentors for outstanding contributions to the mentoring of medical students and interns.

The approximately 100 physicians and students who attended heard remarks from keynote speaker Yvette Roubideaux, MD, director of the U.S. Indian Health Service, who presented an overview of the Indian Health Service.

Brucy Levy, MD, Maria Yialamas, MD, Joel Katz, MD, and Ellen Seely, MD, presented the following awards.

Resident Mentor Award

John M. Dinkler, MD, MPH; Matthew J. Lewis, MD; Jane L. Meisel, MD; Babak Nazer, MD; and Matthew I. Tomey, MD

Fellowship Award

Aaron D. Aguire, MD, PhD; Erin A. Bohula, MD, DPhil; Wai-Kit Lo, MD; Ernest I. Mandel, MD; Joseph F. Merola, MD; Andrew D. Mihalek, MD, PhD; and Connie M. Rhee, MD

Faculty Mentor Award

Ann S. LaCasce, MD; Benjamin Sommers, MD, PhD; and Maria A. Yialamas, MD

Kenneth L. Baughman Faculty Mentoring Award

David W. Bates, MD, MSc

Award recipients and presenters gather at the Department of Medicine’s Annual Education Celebration.