David Stern, MD, Robert Kaplan Executive Dean of the College of Medicine and vice chancellor for Clinical Affairs at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, says he is on a mission “to turn the College of Medicine toward the community.”
His efforts were recognized this week when he was named the winner of the 2016 Health Care Heroes Award for Administrative Excellence by the Memphis Business Journal. The publication’s annual Health Care Heroes Awards celebrate the best in Memphis health care in several categories.
Along with educating the next generation of physicians who will care for the city, state and beyond, Dr. Stern is working to develop initiatives through the College of Medicine that meet the most pressing health needs of the region.
New initiatives in the college include launching the UT Mobile Stroke Unit designed to reduce time to treatment for stroke victims; the Center for Health in Justice-Involved Youth to address mental health issues of young people to keep them out of the juvenile justice system; and the Center for Addiction Science to battle the epidemic of addiction and substance use in our community.
UT Health Science Center was well represented in the 2016 awards.
James (Trey) Eubanks III, MD, chief surgeon, medical director of trauma at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, and an associate professor of surgery at UTHSC, was awarded the 2016 Health Care Heroes Award in the Health Care Provider-Physician category.
Several UTHSC-affiliated physicians were finalists in that category:
- Ramasubbaredy Dhanireddy, MD, Sheldon B. Korones Professor of Pediatrics and Obstetrics and Gynecology and chief of the Division of Neonatology at UTHSC, and medical director of the Newborn Center at Regional One Health and the neonatal intensive care unit at Le Bonheur;
- Andrew Pierce, MD, assistant professor of medicine at UTHSC and a physician with Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare;
- Matthew Wilson, MD, FACS, professor of ophthalmology, St. Jude Endowed Chair in Pediatric Ophthalmology and director of ocular oncology at the UTHSC Hamilton Eye Institute, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The UT Mobile Stroke Unit and Andrei Alexandrov, MD, chair of the Department of Neurology and Semmes Murphey Professor at UTHSC, were finalists in the Health Care Innovations category.
The UT Addiction Medicine Clinic was a finalist in the Community Outreach category.
Anne Zachry, PhD, OTR/L, assistant professor and chair of the Occupational Therapy Department at UTHSC, was a finalist in the Health Care Provider-Non-Physician category for her work as faculty adviser for the Rachel Kay Stevens Therapy Center, which opened this year and is the only pro bono, pediatric occupational therapy clinic in the country.
The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Terry Canale, MD, retired professor and chair of UT Campbell Clinic, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.
An independent panel of judges selected winners from among 25 nominees. The awards ceremony took place Tuesday Aug 16, at the Holiday Inn University of Memphis.