SGIM Announces 2016 Award Winners

 , June 02, 2016

The Society of General Internal Medicine presented numerous awards and grants during its Annual Scientific Meeting, held May 11-14, 2016 at the Diplomat Hotel & Spa in Hollywood, FL. SGIM is proud and pleased to announce the recipients by category:

Recognition Awards

The Robert J. Glaser Award – Presented to Ann B. Nattinger, MD, MPH (Medical College of Wisconsin) 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 Martha Gerrity, MD, MPH, PhD (Oregon Health and Science University), for outstanding service to SGIM and its mission of promoting patient care, research, and education in general internal medicine.

Herbert W. Nickens Award – Presented to Giselle Corbie-Smith MD, MSc
 (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) for a demonstrated commitment to cultural diversity in medicine.

ACLGIM Chiefs Recognition Award – Presented to Wishwa N. Kapoor, MD  (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center). 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 Jonathan Ross, MD (Montefiore Medical Center). 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 2016 recipients are Claudia L. Campos, MD (Wake Forest University) and Anika A. H. Alvanzo, MD, MS (Johns Hopkins University).

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 2016 recipient of this award is Carla L. Spagnoletti, MD, MS (University of Pittsburgh).

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 2016 award was presented to the Gary S. Fischer, MD (University of Pittsburgh GIM Ambulatory Clinic).

The Mary O’Flaherty Horn Scholars in General Internal Medicine (a.k.a. Horn Scholars Program) is a three-year career development award for outstanding junior medical school faculty in general internal medicine. The Horn Scholars Program is intended to foster a new career track for physicians centering on successful balance of career, family, and social responsibilities.  This year’s recipient is Abigail Lenhart, MD (Oregon Health and Science University).


Research Awards

John M. Eisenberg National Award for Career Achievement in Research – Presented to Lisa V. Rubenstein, MD, MSPH (VA Greater Los Angeles) 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 Ryan Greysen MD, MHS, MA  (University of California, San Francisco) 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 L. Ebony Boulware, MD, MPH (Duke University School of Medicine) in recognition of mentoring activities as a general internal medicine investigator.

Best Published Research Paper of the Year – Presented to Rebecca T. Brown, MD (University of California, San Francisco) for her publication “Health Outcomes of Obtaining Housing Among Older Homeless Adults”. This award is offered to help members gain recognition for their papers that have made significant contributions to generalist research. 

Founders’ Award – Presented to Reem Hasan, MD (Oregon Health and Science University), for her proposal entitled “Inpatient Hospitalization: Patterns in Adolescents and Young Adults”. 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.

Clinician-Educator Awards

National Award for Career Achievements in Medical Education – Presented to Melissa A. McNeil, MD, MPH (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) for a lifetime of contributions to medical education.

Frederick L. Brancati Mentorship & Leadership Award – Presented to Abby L. Spencer, MD, MS (Cleveland Clinic). 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 Jed D. Gonzalo, MD (Penn State College of Medicine) for his 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 Stacy M. Higgins, MD (Emory University 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 2016 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 2016 are:

• Andrea Christopher, MD (Cambridge Health Alliance) “Medical Expenditures Exacerbate Income Inequality”
• Ilana Richman, MD (Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Hospital) “Cost-Effectiveness of Intensive Blood Pressure Control”
• Zirui Song, MD, PhD (Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School) “Changes in Quality of Care and Medical Spending for High versus Low Socioeconomic Status Populations under Global Payment

Milton W. Hamolsky - Junior Faculty Awards are presented to the scientific presentations considered most outstanding by junior faculty during the 2016 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 2016 are:

• Samuel T. Edwards, MD (VA Portland Healthcare System Internal Medicine) “Preventing Hospitalizations With Veterans Affairs Home Based Primary Care: Which Patients Benefit Most?”
• Meredith A. Niess, MPH, MD (Oregon Health Sciences University) “Specialty Physicians and Medicaid: Problems beyond Low Reimbursement?”
• Mitesh Patel, MD, MBA, MS (University of Pennsylvania) “Change in Generic Medication Prescribing Rates after Health System-Wide Redesign of Default Options within the Electronic Health Record”

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 Scott Pilla, MD (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine) “Remission of Adult Onset Type 1 Diabetes in a Patient Prescribed Immune Modulating Therapy”.

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 Michael E. Bowen, MD, MPH, MSCS (UTSW Medical Center) for the abstract titled, "When is Random Glucose Abnormal?  Determining the Upper Limit of the Random Glucose Reference Range Using Nationally Representative Data." 

Women’s Health Oral Abstracts Award - “A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Risk Based Mammography Screening Decision Aid for Women 39-48 years of Age”. Marilyn Schapira, MD, MPH (University of Pennsylvania)

Best Geriatrics Research Poster Presentation – Lee Jennings, MD, MSHS (University of California, Los Angeles) "Advance Care Preferences in the Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment among California Nursing Home Residents".

Best Geriatrics Research Oral Abstract – Jonathan Liu, MD (University of Pennsylvania) “Hospital in Home Patients Suffer Fewer Patient Safety Events than Comparable Hospital Inpatients”.