The HOMERuN COVID-19 Collaborative Group, winner of the Excellence in Teamwork award, included more than 150 members across 80 institutions.
SHM’s Awards of Excellence Program honors members who’ve made exceptional contributions to hospital medicine in a variety of categories. Please join The Hospitalist and SHM in congratulating the 2023 award winners.
Clinical Leadership for Physicians
Benji K. Mathews, MD, MBA, SFHM
Dr. Mathews
Dr. Mathews is the department chair of hospital medicine and division head at Regions Hospital with HealthPartners in Minnesota and an associate professor of medicine with a passion for education, innovation, care delivery, and quality.
He’s known as a master clinician with extensive expertise in diagnostic reasoning and point of care ultrasound (POCUS). He’s led clinical innovations with novel care models, peer support programs, ultrasound, and telemedicine, and supporting the growing arena of hospital-at-home, and he devotes considerable time to mentorship and faculty development.
When COVID-19 hit, Dr. Mathews was tapped as the lead physician on all operations related to the pandemic in the hospital medicine department. At the same time, he made another pandemic pivot while serving as course director for Hospital Medicine 2020 and leading preparations for SHM’s national conference by turning the convention into a virtual gathering.
Dr. Mathews is a past president of SHM’s Minnesota chapter and is active locally, nationally, and internationally with SHM. He serves on the Practice Management and POCUS steering committees, the executive council of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Special Interest Group (SIG), and as the chair for the Research, Innovations, and Clinical Vignettes program.
He earned his medical degree and completed his residency and chief residency at the University of Minnesota Medical School, and he has completed a Diagnostic and Patient Safety Fellowship and a Master’s degree in Business Administration.
Clinical Leadership for NPs and PAs
Bridget A. McGrath, MPAS, PA-C, FHM
Ms. McGrath
Ms. McGrath is the director of advanced practice provider hospital medicine services, co-lead for the interprofessional education section, and chair of the hospital-level advanced practice provider executive council at the University of Chicago in Ill. She also holds affiliate faculty status for Butler University’s physician assistant program in Indianapolis and adjunct clinical educator status for Midwestern University’s physician assistant program in Downers Grove, Ill.
Within her administrative role, Ms. McGrath oversees the clinical performance, staffing, and career mentorship of the nurse practitioner (NP) and physician assistant (PA) hospitalist team. She aligns care delivery with section and hospital priorities by identifying and implementing clinical operations, quality improvement, and medical education initiatives.
Ms. McGrath’s academic focus is on the assessment and expansion of professional-development opportunities that promote bidirectional mentorship among NPs, PAs, and physicians. Through this work, she co-developed the framework LEAD: Leadership roles and responsibilities, embedding ideas into pre-existing realms, and academic development.
Ms. McGrath graduated from Butler University’s physician assistant program and started her career as a meds/peds hospitalist PA at Schneck Medical Center in Seymour, Ind. She’s held leadership positions in the SHM Academic Committee and NP/PA SIG. Through her service, she co-developed a national multi-site onboarding survey leading to the published SHM NP/PA Onboarding Case Studies. Additionally, she co-led the pilot year of NP/PA inclusion in academic speed mentoring.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Leadership Award
Archna Eniasivam, MD
Dr. Eniasivam
Dr. Eniasivam is an associate professor in the departments of internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) where she also serves as director of social medicine for the division of hospital medicine and as a diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) physician lead for UCSF Health. She co-leads her division’s anti-racism task force and DEI summer internship for first-year medical students. She co-led the Hospital Medicine Reengineering Network (HOMERuN) Anti-Racism and Health Equity work group (2020-2022), benchmarking health-equity initiatives across academic hospital medicine programs.
Dr. Eniasivam is committed to transforming systems and structures along with the people that uphold them. As a DEIB physician lead, she works on cultural change in the clinical space, including developing processes for policies to be created and reviewed through an anti-racism and healing-centered lens. As director of social medicine, she works to embed health equity into the pillars of quality improvement, faculty and staff development, research, and patient experience.
Her current focus is on building relationships with community organizations to better incorporate patients and the community in identifying and addressing inequities within the hospital. In addition to mentoring faculty and learners, she also developed the curriculum as a co-director (2017-2022) focused on health systems science and social justice for six weeks of her first year of medical school. She also co-led a social-justice discussion club for graduate medical education (2020-2022).
Excellence in Humanitarian Services
Ilan Alhadeff, MD, MBA, CLHM, SFHM
Dr. Alhadeff
Dr. Alhadeff is a board-certified physician executive who has served in numerous health care leadership roles over the last 18 years. Currently the assistant vice president of medical services and care management at Boca Raton Regional Hospital in Florida, he has various administrative and operational department responsibilities. He also works as a physician assistant, serves as affiliate faculty for Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Fla., and practices as a hospitalist. Previously, he worked for the national company TeamHealth in various leadership roles, including hospital-medicine vice president and business development and startup advisor.
Dr. Alhadeff received his medical degree from Ross University in Miramar, Fla., completed an internal medicine residency at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Elmhurst, N.Y., and received his Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and MBA from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Fla. He has served as an SHM Leadership Academy facilitator since 2013.
Dr. Alhadeff is the co-founder and board chairman of Make Our Schools Safe, a non-profit foundation formed by Dr. Alhadeff and Lori Alhadeff after their daughter’s tragic death in the 2018 Parkland school shooting. Successes include passing Alyssa’s Law in three states, the mobile panic alert law named after his daughter, disbursing more than $200,000 for various school safety projects, and forming 20 high-school safety clubs across five states. Dr. Alhadeff also lectures on leading through tragedy and post-traumatic growth.
Lori Alhadeff
Mrs. Alhadeff
Mrs. Alhadeff is a former health and physical education teacher for grades K-12. She graduated from The College of New Jersey in Ewing, N.J. with a Bachelor of Science in health and physical education, and holds a Master of Arts in Education from Gratz College in Melrose Park, Pa.
She spent four years at Union Township School in Hampton, N.J., where she coached volleyball, cheerleading, and softball. She worked one year at Windward School in New York City as a health and physical-education teacher for children with dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities. She also coached cheerleading.
Mrs. Alhadeff was elected to Florida’s Broward County school board in 2018 to serve as a District 4 board member. She is deeply involved in her community, including as a fundraising volunteer for the Parkland Soccer Club. She is also co-founder and president of Make Our Schools Safe and is dedicated to protecting students and teachers at school.
Excellence in Research
Valerie G. Press, MD, MPH, SFHM
Dr. Press
Dr. Press is an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics, executive medical director of specialty value-based care, and medical director of the Care Transitions Clinic at the University of Chicago.
Her research is focused on developing, testing, and implementing patient and system-level interventions to improve the quality and value of care for patients with chronic lung disease across care-transition settings. She currently serves as principal investigator for two R01 research project grants (from the National Institutes of Health and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality). SHM is a collaborator on both R01 projects that are focused on improving care by using tailored patient and system-centered interventions to reduce revisits to the emergency department and/or hospital post-hospitalization for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Dr. Press has been an active member of SHM since 2009 and has served as chair of the Research Committee, of which she is currently a member. She was also the chair of the Research, Innovations, and Clinical Vignettes program. She is a dedicated award-winning mentor and has mentored through the SHM student scholar summer program. She was a recipient of SHM’s Junior Investigator Award in 2017.
Dr. Press received her medical degree and Master of Public Health in health management and policy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She completed her internal medicine and pediatrics residencies and the hospitalist scholars fellowship training program at the University of Chicago.
Excellence in Teaching
Somnath Mookherjee, MD
Dr. Mookherjee
Dr. Mookherjee is an associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. His clinical practice is in perioperative medicine and internal medicine consultation. His scholarly work focuses on optimizing clinical teaching.
In recent years, he has published research on peer feedback on teaching, physical examination education, and education in quality improvement and patient safety. He is co-editor of the “Handbook of Clinical Teaching,” co-editor of “Chalk Talks in Internal Medicine: Scripts for Clinical Teaching,” and co-author of a manual on “Writing Case Reports–A Practical Guide from Conception through Publication.”
Dr. Mookherjee is a faculty member at the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine in Seattle, a role in which he mentors students and teaches fundamental physician skills. As associate director for faculty development in clinical teaching for the UW Center for Learning and Innovation in Medicine Education, Dr. Mookherjee directs the UW clinical teaching certificate program. He also directs the faculty development program and the academic hospitalist fellowship for the UW division of general internal medicine.
Dr. Mookherjee has been active in SHM since completing the UCSF Fellowship in Academic Hospital Medicine in 2008. He is currently the deputy editor of the Clinical Care Conundrum series for the Journal of Hospital Medicine. Dr. Mookherjee completed his training in internal medicine at UW in 2007. After his time at UCSF, he returned to the UW division of general internal medicine in 2012.
Leadership for Practice Managers
Trevor J. Coons, MHA, FACHE
Mr. Coons
Mr. Coons is an assistant professor of health care administration at Mayo Clinic’s College of Medicine and Science in Rochester, Minn. He has more than 10 years of practice leadership experience with the Mayo Clinic. For the last five years, he has served as operations manager for its division of hospital internal medicine as well as supporting Mayo Clinic’s mid-west community division with its 17 hospital internal-medicine practices.
Mr. Coons serves as chair for SHM’s Hospital Medicine Administrators SIG. He is a contributing member of numerous national and international professional committees and workgroups, including the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the Cochrane Policy Research Institute. He is a fellow in the American College of Health Care Executives (ACHE) in Chicago and has served on the board of his state chapter. He presently is a member of ACHE’s national examination committee.
In addition to his professional roles, Mr. Coons has volunteered in numerous civic roles including serving on a rural ambulance commission and also on a chamber of commerce board. He is a member of the Minnesota Governor’s rural health advisory committee and also chairs the Olmsted County Public Health Services advisory board. Mr. Coons has a Bachelor of Arts in management from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and holds a Master of Healthcare Administration degree from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
Excellence in Teamwork
HOMERuN COVID-19 Collaborative Group
The Hospital Medicine Reengineering Network (HOMERuN) COVID-19 collaborative group produced wide-ranging and impactful support for hospitalists, hospitals, and patients, as well as their family caregivers, during the pandemic’s darkest days. HOMERuN exemplifies a nimble, scalable, near-real-time structure to share best practices and lessons for many challenges facing hospitalists and hospitals beyond COVID-19.
HOMERuN connected hospitalists across the United States, rapidly sharing best practices and lessons learned to improve patient care. Video calls with breakout sessions facilitated more than 150 members providing real-time data collection and dissemination to and from as many as 80 medical centers. Email summaries, surveys, newsletters, and an accompanying website provided a broader hospital-medicine audience insight into numerous institutions’ approaches to evaluating and managing patients with COVID-19.
The team comprehensively addressed topics ranging from clinical pathways and workforce planning to discharge criteria. HOMERuN also generated multiple peer-reviewed publications and presentations. The number of HOMERuN institutions and participants grew throughout the pandemic, a testament to its perceived value to participants.
Perhaps HOMERuN’s greatest impact occurred early in the pandemic when hospitalists were overwhelmed by a deluge of new information—all while caring for a torrent of patients. HOMERuN provided a safe harbor in that storm, a reliable venue to find reassurance that others were similarly struggling, and a source of fortifying knowledge. The HOMERuN team epitomized dedicated collaboration among hospitalists, working to address the biggest challenge of our careers, together.
Outstanding Service in Hospital Medicine
Anand Kartha, MBBS, MS, SFHM
Dr. Kartha
Dr. Kartha is head of hospital medicine at Hamad Medical Corporation in Qatar and associate professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. He completed his residency at the University of Pittsburgh Mercy, and his Postgraduate Internal Medicine Fellowship and a Master’s in Health Services Research at Boston University. He is a hospitalist whose work and leadership have significantly impacted the field of hospital medicine, with particular emphasis on veterans’ healthcare and international hospital medicine.
As associate chief for quality at the VA Boston Healthcare System, Dr. Kartha helped establish the Veterans’ Administration’s hospitalist field advisory committee, the SHM VA Hospitalist SIG, and the Boston Association of Academic Hospital Medicine Chapter of SHM. He established Hospital Medicine at Hamad Medical Corporation, a world-class academic system providing 90% of Qatar’s acute care. He implemented multiple programs that significantly improved the entire patient journey.
Dr. Kartha’s work was instrumental to the success of the COVID-19 response and the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. He founded the SHM Middle East Chapter, strengthened the SHM International Chapter, and promoted international membership to grow SHM’s international footprint.
Dr. Kartha is also an inpatient education leader, developing curricula recognized by the Joint Commission and Office of Inspector General as best practice. He has actively published internationally and serves on the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals. He has received multiple awards including the David Littman Award and the Qatar Stars of Excellence Award.
Jr. Investigator Award
Sagar B. Dugani, MD, PhD, MPH, FHM
Dr. Dugani
Dr. Dugani is an assistant professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where he also serves as research chair in the division of hospital internal medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and a fellowship at the University of Toronto, Ontario.
Dr. Dugani served as a consultant to the World Bank in Washington, D.C. to develop metrics for health systems in low- and middle-income countries. He directs the Hospital Experiences to Advance Goals and Outcomes Network (HEXAGON), a research network for hospital internal medicine across Mayo Clinic sites in Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Florida. Through HEXAGON, he leads the longitudinal COVID-19 well-being survey for hospitalists.
Dr. Dugani led the Post-discharge Early Assessment with Remote Video Link randomized clinical trial to improve post-discharge outcomes and serves as principal investigator of the Hospital Internal Medicine Patient Reported Outcomes Versus Experiences study to improve the experience of hospitalized patients.
Through a career development award from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, he leads the Rural Patient Risks and Exposures for Diabetes Control study to characterize rural-urban disparities in diabetes care and improve risk prediction for diabetes in the U.S. Midwest. Dr. Dugani is a member of the SHM Research Committee and both the Patient Experience and the Rural Hospitalists SIGs.