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January 17, 2008

2007: A year of accomplishment for UW Health Sciences

UW Health Sciences faculty and staff had a stellar year in 2007. Here are just a few of their accomplishments.

• Cindi Brennan, assistant director of Ambulatory Pharmacy Services, received the 2007 Pfizer Health-System Pharmacist of the Year Award from the Washington State Pharmacy Association. The award recognizes a health-system pharmacist’s outstanding contributions to the pharmacy profession. Brennan is immediate past president of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, a 30,000-member national professional organization.
   
  
•  Adrienne Fairhall, assistant professor of physiology and biophysics, received the 2007 Society for Neuroscience Career Development Award. The award recognizes outstanding neuroscience researchers in the early stages of their careers who have already published substantial contributions to science, and show indications of leadership within the scientific community.
  
  
• Gregory Gardner, UW professor of medicine, received the UW School of Medicine Outstanding CME Teacher Award, Senior Faculty, for 2006-2007 in recognition of teaching and directing continuing medical education courses, as well as service on the CME Advisory Committee. Gardner teaches senior medical students, rheumatology fellows and medical and orthopaedic residents. He is medical director of the UWMC Medical Specialties Center and directs the rheumatology program. Gardner is also an adjunct professor of orthopaedics and sports medicine and of rehabilitation medicine. He is a past recipient of the Paul B. Beeson Award and the Outstanding Consultant Award from the GIM Center and Women’s Health Care Center.
  
  
• Richard Gower, UW clinical professor of medicine and private practitioner in Spokane, was chosen president-elect of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology at the organization’s annual meeting in Dallas in November. Gower was vice president in 2006-2007 and treasurer of both the college and its foundation from 2003 to 2006. He is serving his third term on the Board of Regents. The college is a professional medical organization that promotes excellence in the practice of the subspecialty of allergy and immunology.
  
  
•  Rodney J. Y. Ho, the Milo Gibaldi Endowed Professor of Pharmacy, was appointed associate editor of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences by the American Pharmacists Association, effective Jan. 1. The journal is a key publication of the association for communicating discoveries and development of drug and delivery systems to maximize safety and efficacy.
  
  
• Ronald Maier, professor and vice chairman of surgery, received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Trauma Resuscitation from the American Heart Association. Maier is the chief of surgery at Harborview Medical Center, and he specializes in trauma and surgical critical care. The award was presented at the heart association’s Resuscitation Science symposium, an international forum for basic scientists, translational/clinical investigators, population researchers and care providers to discuss advances in treating cardiopulmonary arrest and life-threatening traumatic injury.
  
  
• Douglas Paauw, professor of medicine and head of general internal medicine at UW Medical Center, received the Laureate Award from the American College of Physicians (ACP) Washington Chapter. The award honors ACP fellows and masters who have demonstrated a commitment to excellence in medical care, education, and research and who have provided service to their communities and region. Paauw holds the Rathmann Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Patient-Centered Clinical Education, and is the department coordinator for student teaching and for clerkships.
  
  
• Carlos Pellegrini, the Henry N. Harkins Professor and Chair of Surgery at the UW, has been elected president of the Society of Surgical Chairs. The society brings together all the chairs of academic surgery departments in the U.S., meeting annually to discuss management and leadership issues. Pellegrini also was granted honorary membership in the National Academy of Medicine in Argentina. He is one of only a handful of people living outside Argentina to receive the honor. Pellegrini was born in Argentina and earned his medical degree there at the University of Rosario Medical School. He joined the UW faculty in 1993 after serving previously at the University of California, San Francisco.
  
  
• Frederick Rivara, the George Adkins Professor of Pediatrics, has been appointed to the Board of Children, Youth, and Families in the National Academies. The board was created in 1993 under the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine. Rivara studies the cost-effectiveness of trauma care, the impact of domestic violence on women and children, and the effectiveness of interventions in childhood and adolescence.
  
  
• Roger Rosenblatt, professor and vice chair of family medicine, has received the 2007 Malcolm Peterson Award from the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility. Rosenblatt has been involved in caring for underserved populations as founder of the WWAMI Rural Health Research Center and as director of the medical school’s Rural/Underserved Opportunities Program. He also works on pressing environmental issues, and is a member of the Advisory Board of the University’s Program on the Environment. He was a co-founder of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment-Washington chapter, is the head of a faculty team investigating the human health effects of climate change, and is working with the UW provost and other faculty members to design a new College of the Environment at the UW.
  
  
• Luis (Fernando) Santana, associate professor of physiology and biophysics, has been named an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association. The award supports mid-term investigators in a rapid career growth phase with unusual promise, a commitment to studies of the cardiovascular system, and an established record of accomplishments. The five-year award of approximately $500,000 will support Santana’s research on the function of calcium channels in vascular smooth muscle and their role in hypertension.
  
  
• Sherilyn Smith, associate professor of pediatrics and head of the Big Sky College in the School of Medicine Colleges system, was a nominee for the 2007 Association of American Medical Colleges Humanism in Medicine Award. Smith was part of a select group of 42 nominees for the award, which is given to an outstanding physician who advances the ideals of medicine, such as compassion, understanding, and partnership. Smith was recognized as a positive and caring role model, and a physician whom students would like to emulate.
  
  
• UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics received a second leadership award from the health insurer Premera Blue Cross for continued participation in the Premera Quality Score Card program. The Neighborhood Clinics, one of 15 participating medical groups in Washington, has been participating in the program for three years. The program is designed to develop evidence-based outcome measures in key areas of health care. The Neighborhood Clinics are a part of UW Medicine, which also includes Harborview Medical Center, UW Medical Center, and the UW School of Medicine.
  
  
• Anna Wald, professor of  medicine and epidemiology, received the 2006 UW School of Medicine Award for Excellence in Mentoring Women and Minorities. Wald is also an adjunct professor of laboratory medicine. An attending physician at Harborview and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, she is medical director of the UW Virology Research Clinic and investigates the clinical epidemiology and therapy of HSV infections and their interactions with HIV. She has mentored numerous students and fellows over the past 10 years.