SGIM 2017 Award Winners Named

 , May 19, 2017

The Society of General Internal Medicine presented numerous awards and grants during its Annual Scientific Meeting, held April 19-22, 2017 at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC. SGIM is proud and pleased to announce the recipients by category.  For more information about SGIM’s awards, please visit https://www.sgim.org/career-center/awards-and-grants/2017-award-winners 

Recognition Awards

The Robert J. Glaser Award – Presented to Robert M. Centor, MD (University of Alabama at Birmingham) for outstanding contributions to research, education, or both in generalism in medicine.  The award is supported by grants from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, and individual contributors.

Elnora M. Rhodes Service Award – Presented to Mitchell D. Feldman, MD, MPhil and Richard L. Kravitz, MD, MSPH (University of California San Francisco and Davis, respectively) for their outstanding service to SGIM and its mission of promoting patient care, research, and education in general internal medicine.

Herbert W. Nickens Award – Presented to Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, MHS (Yale University) for a demonstrated commitment to cultural diversity in medicine.

David R. Calkins Award in Health Policy Advocacy – Presented to Mark D. Schwartz, MD (New York University School of Medicine) in recognition of his extraordinary commitment to advocating on behalf of SGIM.

ACLGIM Chiefs Recognition Award – Presented to Deborah Burnet, MD, MA (University of Chicago). This award is given annually to the general internal medicine Division Chief who most represents excellence in division leadership.

Lawrence S. Linn Award - Presented to Dana D. Hines, PhD (George Washington University). This award is presented to young investigators to study or improve the quality of life for persons with AIDS or HIV infection. 

The ACLGIM UNLTD (Unified Leadership Training in Diversity) Award - Recognizes junior and mid-career faculty from underrepresented groups with proven leadership potential.  Recipients of this award receive a training scholarship to attend the Leon Hess Leadership Institute hosted by ACLGIM.  The 2017 recipients are Kierstin C. Kennedy, MD, MSHA (University of Alabama at Birmingham) and Tanyka S. Sam, MD, MPH (The Brooklyn Hospital Center Medicine).

The ACLGIM Leadership Award is given to a member of the ACLGIM who is within the first 10 years of faculty appointment. It recognizes skills in leadership in any number of areas of academic medicine, including clinical, educational, research or administrative efforts.  The 2017 recipient of this award is Carrie A. Herzke, MD (Johns Hopkins Hospital Hospitalist Program).

The Quality and Practice Innovation Award - Recognizes general internists and their organization that have successfully developed and implemented innovative role model systems of practice improvement in ambulatory and/or inpatient clinical practice.  The 2017 award was presented to GIM at Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine, Jeffrey Samet, Chief.


Research Awards

John M. Eisenberg National Award for Career Achievement in Research – Presented to Joann G. Elmore, MD, MPH (Harborview Medical Center), in recognition of a senior SGIM member whose innovative research has changed the way we care for patients, the way we conduct research, or the way we educate our students.  SGIM member contributions and the Hess Foundation support this award.

Outstanding Junior Investigator of the Year – Presented to Yael Schenker, MD (University of Pittsburgh) for early career achievements and overall body of work that has made a national impact on generalist research.

Mid-Career Research and Mentorship Award– Presented to Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS (Yale University School of Medicine) in recognition of mentoring activities as a general internal medicine investigator.

Best Published Research Paper of the Year – Presented to Victoria L. Tang, MD (University of California – San Francisco) for her 2016 publication “Clinician Factors Associated with Prostate-Specific Antigen Screening in Older Veterans with Limited Life Expectancy”. This award is offered to help members gain recognition for their papers that have made significant contributions to generalist research. 

Founders’ Award – Presented to Melissa Y. Wei, MD, MPH, SM (University of Michigan), for her proposal entitled “Chronic diseases and physical functioning: development and validation of an ICD-coded multimorbidity index”. The SGIM Founders Award provides $10,000 support to junior investigators who exhibit significant potential for a successful research career and who need a “jump start” to establish a strong research funding base.

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) - Mentored Training Award in Substance Use Disorder Treatment Science Dissemination – Tiffany Y. Lu, MD (Montefiore-Einstein) Supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and sponsored by the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM)

Clinician-Educator Awards

National Award for Career Achievements in Medical Education – Presented to Daniel R. Wolpaw, MD (Penn State College of Medicine) for a lifetime of contributions to medical education.

Frederick L. Brancati Mentorship & Leadership Award – Presented to Margaret C. Lo, MD (University of Florida). The Brancati Award honors an individual at the junior faculty level who inspires and mentors trainees to pursue general internal medicine and lead the transformation of health care through innovations in research, education, and practice.  

National Award for Scholarship in Medical Education – Presented to Abby L. Spencer, MD, MS (Cleveland Clinic) for her individual contributions to medical education in one or more of the following categories: Scholarship of Integration, Scholarship in Educational Methods and Teaching, and Scholarship in Clinical Practice.

Mid-Career Mentorship in Education Award – Presented to Alda Maria R. Gonzaga, MD, MS 
(University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine). This award recognizes the mentoring activities of general medicine educators who are actively engaged in education research and mentorship of junior clinician educators.

Presentation Awards:

Mack Lipkin, Sr. - Associate Member Awards are presented to the scientific presentations considered most outstanding by students, residents and fellows during the 2017 SGIM annual meeting.  Awards are made based on participant evaluations of the presentations and are endowed by the Zlinkoff Fund for Medical Education.  The award winners for 2017 are:

• Anna Goldman, MD (Cambridge Health Alliance) “Early Impacts of the ACA on Out-of-Pocket and Insurance Premium Spending”
• David Levine, MD, MA (Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School) “Hospital-Level Care at home for Acutely Ill Adults: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial”
• Adam Markovitz, BS, MD/PhD Candidate (University of Michigan) “Incremental Effects of Antihypertensive Drugs: An Instrumental Variable Analysis of the SPRINT Trial”

Milton W. Hamolsky - Junior Faculty Awards are presented to the scientific presentations considered most outstanding by junior faculty during the 2017 SGIM annual meeting.  Awards are made based on participant evaluations of the presentations and are endowed by the Zlinkoff Fund for Medical Education.  The award winners for 2017 are:

• Michael Basrnett, MD (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) “Emergency Physician Opioid Prescribing Patterns and Risk of Long-Term Use”
• Melissa Wei, MD (University of Michigan) “Multimorbidity and Physical and Cognitive Function in Nationally-Representative US Adults: Performance of a New Multimorbidity-Weighted Index”\
• Renuka Tipirneni, MD (University of Michigan, Michigan Medicine) “The Impact of Michigan’s Medicaid Expansion on Low-Income Enrollees’ Functional Status, Ability to Work, and Employment: A Mixed Methods Study””

SGIM Clinical Vignette Oral Presentation Award - Recognizes the best presented clinical case by a medical students, internal medicine residents or GIM fellows (not faculty) at the SGIM National Meeting. This year’s recipient is Kaylan Christopher, MD (New York Presbyterian – Columbia) “Don’t Always Follow Your Heart: A Caveat to Troponon-T”

Outstanding Quality & Patient Safety Oral Presentation Award recognizes the most outstanding oral abstract presentation related to quality assessment, gaps in quality of care, medical errors, quality improvement or patient safety in the inpatient or outpatient setting at the SGIM National meeting.  This year’s awardee is John Mafi, MD, MPH (David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA Department of Medicine) for the abstract titled, "Evaluation of Choosing Wisely TM Intervention to Reduce Low Value Preoperative Care for Patients Undergoing Cataract Surgery at a Safety Net Health System”

Women’s Health Oral Abstracts Award - “Interpersonal Violence, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Age-Related Genitourinary Dysfunction in Women”. Carolyn Gibson, PhD, MPH (San Francisco VA Medical Center)

Best Geriatrics Research Poster Presentation – Maria Patanwala, BA (University of California, San Francisco) "Prevalence, Severity, and Factors Associated with Multi-dimensional Symptoms in Older Homeless Adults: Results from the HOPE HOME Study”

Best Geriatrics Research Oral Abstract – Timothy Anderson, MD (University of California, San Francisco) “Changes to Outpatient Hypertension and Diabetes Medications in Older Adults Following Unrelated Hospitalizations”

Best Cancer Research Oral Presentation Award – Leland Hull, MD (Boston VAMC) “Screening Rates for Genetic Counseling Referral are LOW Among a National Sample of Women at Risk for a BRCA Mutation”

Best Cancer Research Poster Presentation Award – Arjun Theertham, MD (Creighton University) “Incidence of Colorectal Carcinoma Following Lung or Heart Transplant – A Descriptive Study Using the UNOS Database”