SHM has presented the 2008 Awards of Excellence to four hospitalists and one quality improvement team. Their work and research have contributed significantly to hospital medicine and the betterment of patient care and quality improvement. The winners were recognized at Hospital Medicine 2008.
Award for Clinical Excellence: Kevin O’Leary, MD, associate professor of medicine and the associate chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
Dr. O’Leary leads strategic initiatives for the division in his job as associate chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine, especially in patient safety and quality. He also chairs the department’s Quality Management Committee.
An active member of SHM since 2002, Dr. O’Leary has served on the Core Competencies Task Force, the Annual Meeting Planning Committee, and the Annual Meeting Precourse Planning Committee. He also is active in SHM’s Chicago chapter, where he serves as vice president. He serves as an assistant editor for the Journal of Hospital Medicine.
Dr. O’Leary received his bachelor’s inbiology and medical degree from the University of Illinois. He completed his residency at Northwestern University.
Award for Excellence in Research: Peter Lindenauer, MD, MSc, medical director of clinical and quality informatics at Baystate Health in Springfield, Mass., and associate professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston.
Dr. Lindenauer is responsible for lending the development of an electronic medical record at a large integrated delivery network in western Massachusetts in his job as medical director of clinical and quality informatics.
He has served on technical expert panels for Medicare, patient safety, monitoring systems, and surgical care improvement projects. He also has been a part of the National Quality Forum’s Hospital Quality Measures Development Group and has served on the inpatient functionality work group of the Certifying Committee for Healthcare Information Technology.
As a founding member of SHM, Dr. Lindenauer has served on the society’s board of directors and is a member of the Hospital Quality and Patient Safety Standards Committee.
A graduate of the University of Chicago, Dr. Lindenauer received his bachelor’s in history and received his graduate degree from the Herndon School of Economics and Political Science in Health Planning and Financing. He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and completed residency training at the University of California, San Francisco.
Award for Excellence in Teaching: Anjala Tess, MD, associate program director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program and director of education for the hospital medicine program, as well as a medical unit director and practicing hospitalist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Dr. Tess is in charge of the quality improvement teaching program and curriculum for the entire residency program at Beth Israel Deaconess. She also helps oversee the resident elective in hospital medicine and directs educational activities for the group. Her goal is to involve residents in process improvement in the hospital by giving them a hands-on role in quality improvement and peer review.
She has received numerous awards, including the Hermann Blumgart Teaching Award at Beth Israel Deaconess and first prize in SHM’s Innovations Poster Competition.