Congratulations to the following members of the BIDMC family for their awards, honors, important presentations, publications, and overall accomplishments. This section will be updated weekly. To include information on yourself or a colleague, please submit the Awards and Honors Announcement Form.

Tata Agwo, systems integration engineer, information systems, recently published his book, The Mysterious Virtues of Paul Abanda. Featuring an introduction by BIDMC's Senior Vice President of Network Integration, Stanley Lewis, M.D., the book examines how indigenous African tribal cultures influence the formulation of techniques to eradicate HIV/AIDS in that region of the world. Agwo is donating 25 percent of royalties to HIV/AIDS research, education, prevention and treatment. A launch party for the book was held in Boston on May 22.

The Bowdoin Street Health Center received an Environmental Merit Award from the Environmental Protection Agency for its exceptional work in the LeadSafeHomes Project, which provides access to a user-friendly Web site to help neighborhood residents assess the danger of lead in their homes. The project, which builds on Bowdoin Street's longstanding campaign against childhood lead paint poisoning, also provides residents with links to resources to help remediate lead-related issues if problems are identified. Bowdoin Street's Angelo Nogueira Sanca , community health, accepted the award on behalf of the Center. Project partners included Lead Action Collaborative, Dorchester Environmental Health Coalition, National Center for Healthy Homes and ABT Associates.

Rafael Campo, M.D., general medicine/Healthcare Associates, was recognized as the doctor of literature honorand at Amherst College commencement 2004. Campo is the author of four books of poetry, including What the Body Told (1996) and Landscape with Human Figure (2002). He is also the author of the autobiographical The Poetry of Healing: A Doctor's Education in Empathy, Identity, and Desire (1997). Rafael recently gave a plenary talk at a conference at Duke University entitled “Vital Lines, Vital Signs: A Conference on Poetry and Medicine.”

Greg Ciottone, M.D., director, division of international disaster and emergency medicine, was appointed to the faculty of the European Master in Disaster Medicine. He is one of only two Americans to be named to the prestigious organization, for which he will help conduct large-scale disaster exercises in Europe.

Melinda Dennis, M.S., R.D., L.D.N., ambulatory dietitian, co-authored an article on “Going Gluten-Free: A Primer for Clinicians” with Shelley Case, B.Sc., R.D., of the Celiac Disease Foundation and Gluten Intolerance Group in Saskatchewan, Canada. The article appeared in the April 2004 edition of Practical Gastroenterology .

Sara Fazio, M.D., general medicine/Healthcare Associates, was named SGIM (Society of General Internal Medicine) co-chair of the national SGIM/CDIM Core Medicine Clerkship Curriculum Guide Revision Committee, and received the New England SGIM Medical Educator Award at the NE Society of General Internal Medicine Regional Meeting. Fazio was also awarded a grant from the Harvard Medical School Academy to continue work on her assessment reform project for the third year internal medicine clerkship. In addition, Fazio has been invited to serve on the NIH Consensus Conference on Celiac Sprue that will take place in June.

Greg Fenton, M.D. and Susan Fitzgerald, N.P., medical providers at Sidney Borum Jr. Health Center, and Ediss Gandelman, director of community benefits, received BIDMC's Gay and Lesbian Achievement Award on June 8, given annually to those who exhibit steadfast dedication and commitment to providing culturally competent health care, and for creating a welcoming environment for gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender employees and patients.

Pat Folcarelli, R.N., M.A., director of professional practice development, patient care services, earned a Ph.D. from the Steinhardt School of Education's division of Nursing at New York University.

Lachlan Forrow, M.D., director, ethics support services, received the Harvard Medical School 2004 AAMC Humanism in Medicine Award. A recognition reception was held on April 27. Forrow received the award for his “dedication to mentoring future physicians and for serving as a pillar upholding the principles of humanism in medicine.”

Hester Hill, L.I.C.S.W., chief of oncology social work, was presented with the 2003 Pat's Friend Award by the M. Patricia Cronin Foundation to Fight Ovarian Cancer on May 12. Simmons College School of Social Work also named her the winner of the Harriet Bartlett Award for her book “After Breast Cancer: A Common Sense Guide to Life After Treatment.”

Bruce Landon, M.D., general medicine/Healthcare Associates, has been promoted to Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. Landon also received the National SGIM (Society of General Internal Medicine) Junior Investigator Award at the Society's 27th Annual Meeting in May.

Paul Levy, president and CEO, has been named vice chair of the Council of Boston Teaching Hospitals (COBTH), a coalition of Boston's 12 teaching hospitals.

Joseph Li, M.D., associate director, hospitalist program, and Nicholas Mitsiades, M.D., house staff, presented a poster at the New England regional meeting of the Society of General Internal Medicine entitled “Ulceroglandular Tularemia.”

Howard Libman, M.D., general medicine/Healthcare Associates, became a member of the International Committee of the American Association of HIV Medicine. Libman also presented talks on “Infectious Disease Cases “ and “HIV Disease: Essentials for the Primary Care Provider” at PriMed South, Harvard Medical School Department of Continuing Education.

Ken Mukamal, M.D., M.P.H., general medicine/Healthcare Associates, received a grant award for “Alcohol and Chronic Disease in Vulnerable Populations” for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. He will serve as principal investigator of the BIDMC subcontract for the five-year grant. Mukamal also recently gave a talk at the Hans Fisher Symposium on alcohol at Rutgers University.

Lori R. Newman, manager, educational programs and curriculum development, general medicine/Carl J. Shapiro Institute for Education and Research, has won the annual Wiczai Award, presented to the administrative staff member who has done the most or contributed most thoughtfully to fostering the educational association between Harvard Medical School's affiliated institutions and the school. The award was presented at the Faculty Teaching Awards event on May 20.

Russell Phillips, M.D., division chief, general medicine/Healthcare Associates, has been named full professor at Harvard Medical School.

Daniel Z. Sands, M.D., M.P.H., clinical director of EPR and communications, taught five sessions at the annual American College of Physicians meeting in New Orleans, April 22-24. His lecture titles were “Patient Records Online”, “Clinical Decision Support Resources on the Web”, “ePCC: E-mail and Other E-ways to Communicate Clinically”, “Making CyberPatients Partners in Their Own Care” and “Presentation Skills and Design.” Sands also presented at the University of Miami's 2004 Conference on Ethics and Health Information Technology on the ethical issue of the use of IT in health care.

Gerald Smetana, M.D., general medicine/Healthcare Associates, received a letter from Harold Sox, M.D., editor of the Annals of Internal Medicine, thanking him for the quality and timeliness of his reviews for the Annals. Smetana's reviews placed in the top 10 percent of all reviews featured in 2003. Smetana also recently gave talks on hypertension and preoperative cardiac evaluation for PriMed in Fort Lauderdale, and received the National SGIM (Society of General Internal Medicine) Clinician-Educator Award for Scholarship in Medical Education at the Society's Annual Meeting in May. He has been invited to direct a series of CME courses in Switzerland over the next year entitled “Advances in Clinical Practice, Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment,” sponsored by Harvard Medical International.

Idania Tablada, C.C.S-P., C.P.C, compliance auditor for Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians, authored an article entitled “Examining Pain,” that focuses on compliance issues and coding updates for pain management services in the ICU and other inpatient units. The article appeared in the April 1 edition of Critical Connections , the newsletter of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

Daniel Tarsy, M.D., chief, Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center and vice chairman, department of neurology, was invited to give a series of lectures on movement disorders at a Movement Disorders Course and International Botulinum Toxin Workshop in Neurology held at Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute in Chennia, India on March 27-29. Sri Ramachandra is an affiliate of Harvard Medical International. He also spoke at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Neurological Association, April 3, on “Parkinson's disease: Is Medical Treatment Still Relevant?"

Anjala Tess, M.D., general medicine, and Sarah Bonkovsky, M.D., medical house staff, had their research poster entitled “Clinicians' Perspectives on Work-Hour Restrictions and House Officer Errors” accepted for presentation at the Society of Hospital Medicine annual national meeting.

Lisa Tieszen, L.I.C.S.W., program leader, social work, was the recipient of the “Extraordinary Contributions to Community Victim Services Award” from the Massachusetts Office for Victim's Assistance. The award was given at the Massachusetts Annual Victim Rights Conference.

Christina Wee, M.D., M.P.H., general medicine/Healthcare Associates, has been invited to serve on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Outcomes Management. Wee also received the New England SGIM (Society of General Internal Medicine) Clinical Investigator Award, which was presented at the NE Society of General Internal Medicine Regional Meeting.

The following staff presented papers at the annual statewide National Association of Social Workers (NASW) symposium on April 14-15, 2004:

Hester Hill Schnipper, L.I.C.S.W., - "Working with Women Who Have Breast Cancer"

Stephen O'Neill, L.I.C.S.W., - "Clinical Ethics and the Interface with Duty to Warn"

Barbara Sarnoff Lee, L.I.C.S.W. - "To See or Not to See: Pregnancy Loss Interventions and Best Practices"

Jay Warren, L.I.C.S.W. - "Mad in America: Rethinking Paradigms of Major Mental Illness"