PHILADELPHIA, April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) has recognized four hospitalists whose work and research have contributed significantly to hospital medicine and to the betterment of hospital care across America.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030401/LATU042LOGO )
SHM is the premier U.S. medical society representing hospitalists -- physicians whose primary professional focus is the general medical care of hospitalized patients. The awards were presented before more than 1,000 attendees at the largest-ever SHM annual meeting held April 20-21 in New Orleans.
Those individuals honored for their contributions to the medical profession were:
* Andrew D. Auerbach, M.D., MPH, assistant professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco and co-director of the UCSF Perioperative Cardiac Care Quality Improvement program -- recipient of the Young Investigator Award. * Diane Craig, M.D., clinical associate professor of medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine and hospitalist at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center -- recipient of the Outstanding Service in Hospital Medicine Award. * Andrew Fishmann, M.D., co-founder and board member of Cogent Healthcare and pulmonary and critical care specialist at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles -- recipient of the Clinical Excellence Award. * Vijay Rajput , M.D., FACP, assistant professor of medicine and co-program director of internal medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Cooper Health System, Camden, New Jersey -- recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award.
Dr. Auerbach, recipient of the Young Investigator Award, was most recently lead researcher on the study “Implementation of a Voluntary Hospitalist Service at a Community Teaching Hospital: Improved Clinical Efficiency and Patient Outcomes” published in the December 2002 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. Over the last several years, his work has been published in more than 20 national and international science and medical publications and has earned him academic and research recognition from the Society of General Internal Medicine and Dartmouth Medical School.
Dr. Auerbach joined the faculty of the UCSF in 1998 becoming one of the first hospitalist scientists in the country. His ongoing research includes a study of physician acceptance of the hospitalist model, the hospitalist’s impact on end-of-life care and the value of hospitalists beyond the cost issue.
Dr. Auerbach did his undergraduate education at Bowdoin College in Maine and received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire. He completed his residency at Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut and then received a Masters in Public Health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health as part of a fellowship in general internal medicine.
Diane E. Craig, M.D., recipient of the 2004 award for Outstanding Service in Hospital Medicine, is a clinical associate professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and is a hospitalist at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in California. A founding board member of SHM and a nationally recognized expert on hospitalist programs, Dr. Craig has spoken extensively on hospital medicine at national meetings of the American College of Physicians and the International Institute of Research. Her writings have also been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the Permanente Journal and The Hospitalist.
Dr. Craig graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz and obtained her Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of California at Irvine. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Santa Clara.
Andrew Fishmann, M.D., who received SHM’s award for Clinical Excellence, is a pulmonary and critical care specialist at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles where he currently serves as the director of the intensive care unit and co-director of the respiratory therapy and pulmonary function laboratory. He also is co-founder and a board member of Cogent Healthcare and is a senior partner at California Lung Associates, a Los Angeles-based practice specializing in pulmonology.
A practicing hospitalist for more than a decade, Dr. Fishmann pioneered training and on-site mentoring programs, “best practice” guidelines and continuing medical education programs at Cogent. He was recently appointed to the National Advisory Council for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that provides advice and recommendations on priorities for national health services.
Dr. Fishmann earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania and his medical degree from Temple University in Philadelphia. He completed an internal medicine residency at Temple University as well as a pulmonary/critical care fellowship at the University of California at San Diego.
Dr. Vijay Rajput received SHM’s 2004 award for Excellence in Teaching for his role as an outstanding teacher, academician, mentor and role model. Dr. Rajput is an academic hospitalist and assistant professor of medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey. His educational duties include program co-directorship of the internal medicine residency at Cooper Hospital Health System. Dr. Rajput also has served as chair of the Cooper Hospital ethics committee and is a member of SHM’s ethics committee.
In 2003 Dr. Rajput received the UMDNJ foundation award for Excellence in Teaching from both campuses of the medical school and an honorary alumni award from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Most recently, he received the Arnold P. Gold Foundation grant for “Teaching Humanism in Medicine.” With this grant, Dr. Rajput will develop a Web-based ethics curriculum and an Observed Structured Clinical Exercise (OSCE) model in which multidisciplinary house staff from different residency programs will be assessed for their communication skills in different ethical dilemmas.
Dr. Rajput has co-authored articles in more than 15 medical publications and has lectured extensively at international and national gatherings. He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree at Bombay University in India where he also fulfilled his surgical residency and became board certified in general surgery. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine as a member of the Cooper Hospital Health System, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey -- Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Camden, New Jersey.
The Society of Hospital Medicine, formerly known as the National Association of Inpatient Physicians (NAIP), was established in 1997 to support and enhance the practice of hospital medicine. Hospitalists’ activities include patient care, research, teaching and leadership related to hospital care. Currently there are almost 8,000 hospitalists nationwide. This number is expected to grow fourfold by the end of the decade. For more information, visit the SHM Web site at http://www.hospitalmedicine.org/.
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CONTACT: Lisa Freeman of Kevin Ross Public Relations, +1-818-597-8453,for Society of Hospital Medicine
Web site: http://www.hospitalmedicine.org/
