UT College of Medicine Alumnus Also Honored With Distinguished Service Award
James Eason, MD, FACS, professor and chief of the Division of Transplant Surgery in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) and medical director of the Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute, received an Outstanding Physician Award from the Tennessee Medical Association (TMA) at its recent annual convention in Nashville.
The TMA also honored J. Mack Worthington, MD, FAAFP, professor and chair of Family Medicine in the UTHSC College of Medicine, Chattanooga, with an Outstanding Physician Award. The award is given annually by the TMA House of Delegates to member physicians, who through their illustrious medical careers, make an impression among their colleagues, peers and on the profession of medicine.
Dr. Eason moved to Memphis in 2005 from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to become director of the transplant institute. His leadership has been instrumental in transforming the institute into one of the best programs in the country for liver and kidney transplants. In just nine months after he joined the program, it became one of the 10 largest liver transplant centers in the nation.
“I am very honored to receive this award and feel it is a testament to the extraordinary team I have been able to build with the support of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare and the University of Tennessee,” Dr. Eason said.
In 2011, Dr. Eason was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to a four-year term on the advisory committee on organ transplantation to assist in enhancing organ donation across the country.
Dr. Worthington has practiced family medicine for more than 30 years. He has served as president of the Memphis-Shelby County Academy of Family Physicians, president of the Tennessee Academy of Family Physicians, president of the Chattanooga-Hamilton Medical Society, and president of the TMA.
Dr. Worthington is actively involved in the teaching at UTHSC. Besides chairing the Department of Family Medicine in Chattanooga, he serves as program director for Geriatric Medicine and clerkship director.
“I was both surprised and honored to have been selected for this award,” Dr. Worthington said. “I am thankful for my family and those in my practice who have allowed me to participate with the Tennessee Medical Association to improve the medical care for our patients and make the medical profession more enjoyable for physicians in Tennessee.”
UT College of Medicine alumnus William Mariencheck, MD, received a Distinguished Physician Service Award presented annually by the TMA board of trustees to exemplary members of the association for their notable achievements.
Dr. Mariencheck, who has practiced medicine for 50 years, is an internist at Mid-South Pulmonary Specialists, PC, in Memphis.
He has been president of the American Lung Association of Tennessee, president of the Tennessee Thoracic Society, vice president of the Memphis Academy of Internal Medicine, and served on the boards of the Sarcoidosis Research Institute and the Will Rogers Memorial Foundation.