Spring 2019 Awards and Honors

This issue of Awards and Honors highlights accomplishments of the BIDMC community from spring 2019.

Mark Aronson, MD, is one of the recipients of 2019 Willam Silen Lifetime Achievement Award, part of Excellence in Mentoring Awards given by Harvard Medical School.  Harvard Medical School established the Excellence in Mentoring Awards to recognize the value of quality mentoring relationships and the impact they have on professional development and career advancement in clinical medicine, teaching, research and administration.

Lorraine Britting, NP, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, received the 2019 Society of Hospital Medicine’s Award for Excellence for Nurse Practitioners/Physician Assistants. She was selected for her exceptional contributions to hospital medicine. Britting has overseen the expansion of the Advanced Practice Practitioners (APP) Program from eight to 30 APPs. She supervises the lead nurse practitioners who manage the Cardiology programs of Advanced Heart Failure/VAD and Structural Heart, and is personally responsible for the Electrophysiology, Inpatient, Interventional, and Urgent care/OBs programs and maintains her clinical skills providing patient care in these areas.

Ruth Colman, Internal Medicine, was awarded the DMEA Administrators Award at the 2019 Massachusetts Society of Academic Medical Administrators Awards.

Richard Cummings, MD, Department of Surgery, was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Montevallo (UMNAA). Cummings is currently the Abraham Professor of Surgery at BIDMC and director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Glycoscience. Cummins is one of the country’s leading biological chemists. He is a co-founder, among other well-known scientists, of the fields of glycomics and glycobiology. Cummings has more than 300 peer-reviewed publications in the field, along with more than 70 review articles, and dozens of book chapters. Cummings earned his BS from Montevallo in 1974.

Ronald Eisenberg, MD, Professor of Radiology, published Jews In Medicine his 12th book relating to the history and traditions of the Jewish people. Jews in Medicine documents the history of medical contributions made by Jewish physicians throughout the ages. The book profiles more than 450 individual Jewish physicians, and the book is divided by region and area of specialization.

Patrick Fuller, PhD, is one of the recipients of 2019 A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award, part of Excellence in Mentoring Awards given by Harvard Medical School.  Harvard Medical School established the Excellence in Mentoring Awards to recognize the value of quality mentoring relationships and the impact they have on professional development and career advancement in clinical medicine, teaching, research and administration.

Robert Gerszten, MD, is one of the recipients of 2019 Willam Silen Lifetime Achievement Award, part of Excellence in Mentoring Awards given by Harvard Medical School.  Harvard Medical School established the Excellence in Mentoring Awards to recognize the value of quality mentoring relationships and the impact they have on professional development and career advancement in clinical medicine, teaching, research and administration.

Kim Guibone, NP, received the American College of Cardiology’s Proctor Harvey, MD Young Teacher Award.

Kevin Haigis, PhD, Director of Cancer Genetics Program at the Cancer Research Institute at BIDMC, was named a collaborator on Cancer Research UK’S Grand Challenge. Led by Principal Investigator Stephen Elledge, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Haigis and collaborators seek to understand why and how potentially cancer-causing mutations, which exist in every cell throughout the body, cause cancer only in specific tissues. The Cancer Research UK’s Grand Challenge competition awards five-year, £20 million (approximately $25 million) prizes to international, multidisciplinary research teams seeking to revolutionize our understanding of cancer and make strides toward better treatments and new ways to prevent and diagnose the disease.

Margaret Hayes, MD, is one of the recipients of 2019 Young Mentor Award, part of Excellence in Mentoring Awards given by Harvard Medical School.  Harvard Medical School established the Excellence in Mentoring Awards to recognize the value of quality mentoring relationships and the impact they have on professional development and career advancement in clinical medicine, teaching, research and administration.

Phillomin Laptiste, Executive Director of the Bowdoin Street Health Center, was nominated by Mayor Martin Walsh to the Board of Health, the governing body of the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC). Laptiste currently oversees Bowdoin Street Health Center operations and develops, implements and evaluates health center programs in response to changing community and patient needs. The BPHC is an independent public agency providing a wide range of health services and programs. It is governed by a seven-member board of health appointed by the Mayor of Boston.

Marsha Maurer, DNP, RN, was named an inaugural fellow of the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE). The AONE fellow designation recognizes a nurse leader’s sustained contributions to the specialty of nursing leadership, commitment to service and influence in shaping health care. AONE will honor the inductees on April 11 at AONE’s Annual Meeting in San Diego.

Monica Mendiola, MD, Instructor in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology was named a recipient of the 2019 Harold Amos Faculty Diversity Awards given by Harvard Medical School. The Harold Amos Diversity Award has been established to recognize HMS/HSDM faculty (clinical, pre-clinical, research, administrative) who have made significant achievements in moving HMS/HSDM toward being a diverse and inclusive community.

Emmanuel Mensah, MD, MBA, was named one of the 2019 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health by the National Minority Quality Forum.

Taru Muranen, PhD, was awarded a grant from the American Cancer Society to utilize patient-derived pancreatic cancer organoids (so-called as they are considered mini-organs) together with stromal cells to identify effective drug combinations that could enhance the effectiveness of current therapies in pancreatic cancer, one of the most lethal types of cancer

Susan Mitchell, MD, MPH, is one of the recipients of 2019 Excellence in Mentoring Awards given by Harvard Medical School.  Harvard Medical School established the Excellence in Mentoring Awards to recognize the value of quality mentoring relationships and the impact they have on professional development and career advancement in clinical medicine, teaching, research and administration.

BIDMC’s Multiple Sclerosis Center was recently awarded a National Multiple Sclerosis Society grant entitled "Role of sleep apnea in MS fatigue and disability." This grant will support a three- year project to measure the prevalence of sleep apnea and its relationship to fatigue in MS.

Pier Paolo Pandolfi, MD, PhD, Director of the Cancer and Cancer Research Institute at BIDMC, is part of an international research consortium awarded $9.2 million from the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s Challenge 2018 Programme. Known as the NASH Research Consortium, the team will use the funds in a combined effort to develop new therapies for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a severe form of liver disease that is rapidly becoming the leading cause of end-stage liver disease, liver transplantation and some forms of liver cancer.  

Barry Rosenblum, DPM, FACFAS, Podiatry, was named the recipient of the 2019 American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeon’s (ACFAS) Distinguished Service Award, one of the College’s highest honors. Rosenblum is the 16th recipient of this distinguished honor and was presented with the award at ACFAS' Annual Scientific Conference in New Orleans on Feb. 15.

Clifford Saper, MD, PhD, Neurology, was selected as a recipient of the 2019 Sleep Science Award from the American Academy of Neurology. The Sleep Science Award is given in recognition of outstanding achievement in Sleep Science research. Saper will receive the award at the 71stAnnual American Academy of Neurology Meeting in May.

Richard Schwartzstein, MD, Executive Director, Carl J. Shapiro Institute for Education and Research, Vice President for Education, will receive the Outstanding Educator Award at the American Thoracic Society (ATS) 2019 International Conference. The award is scheduled to be presented during the ATS Plenary Session in May 2019. The Outstanding Educator Award recognizes lifetime contributions in education and mentoring in the fields of pulmonary, critical care or sleep medicine. This award honors excellence in clinical or research education as it relates to pulmonary disease.

Jenny Thomas, RN, was awarded an excellence award in clinical education and teaching at the New England Regional Black Nurses Association’s Annual Awards Ceremony.