Fall/Winter 2006 - University of Rochester Medical Center

alumni news
Schuster named
first woman president
of internal medicine
association
Barbara L. Schuster, M.D. (M ’77, R ’80),
professor and chair of the Department of
Internal Medicine at Wright State University
Boonshoft School of
Medicine, has been
appointed president
of the Association of
Professors of Medicine.
The association
is the national organization
of chairs of
departments of
internal medicine
at the 125 medical
schools in the United
States. She is the first
woman to be
appointed president
Barbara L.
Schuster, M.D.
since the association’s inception in 1954.
Schuster is former president of the
Association of Program Directors in Internal
Medicine, former chair of the Council of
Academic Societies of the Association of
American Medical Colleges, and a current
member of the Association of Professors of
Medicine board of directors. She is a recipient
of the prestigious Dema C. Daley
Founder’s award, given annually to recognize
national educators, innovators, and leaders of
internal medicine. Schuster was granted
Mastership, an honor awarded a small
number of physicians who have contributed
extensively to the profession by the American
College of Physicians. She has previously
served as a regent of the American College of
Physicians and chaired its Education
Committee.
Schuster has been at the Boonshoft
School of Medicine since 1995. Prior to her
present position, she served as residency
program director for the primary care program
in internal medicine and the combined
internal medicine and pediatric program at
the University of Rochester School of
Medicine and Dentistry.
The association’s mission is to lead
academic internal medicine, specifically in the
education, research and patient care arenas.
To meet this mission, the association provides
services, training, and educational opportunities
for leaders in departments of internal
medicine.
Harvard dean
wins international
research prize
Joseph Martin, M.D., Ph.D. (PhD ’71), dean of
the Harvard Faculty of Medicine, has won the
inaugural Henry G. Friesen International Prize
in Health Research.
The new annual award, which includes
$20,000, is a joint initiative of the Friends of
Canadian Institutes of Health Research and
the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
The prize recognizes exceptional innovation
and vision by health leaders, traits exemplified
by Friesen, a renowned Canadian
endocrinologist, medical scientist, and
visionary in health research planning.
In conjunction with the award in
September, Martin, a native of Bassano,
Alberta, delivered a public lecture titled
“Brain Disease: Health Research Policy for
the Public Good” at the National Gallery of
Canada in Ottawa.
Martin has announced that he will step
down as dean in July 2007, after 10 years in
the position. He plans to focus his attention
on the efforts of the Harvard Center for
Neurodegeneration and Repair.
Martin’s career spans more than 40
years of medical research and leadership.
He has served as dean of the Harvard Faculty
of Medicine since February 1997. Prior to his
appointment at Harvard, he was chancellor of
the University of California at San Francisco
for four years. He initially joined UCSF in 1989
as dean of the School of Medicine.
During his career, Martin also was
Bullard Professor of Neurology and chief of
neurology service at Massachusetts General
Hospital, Julieanne Dorn Professor of
Neurology at Harvard and chairman of the
Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery
at McGill University.
One of his first actions as dean at
Harvard was to create a new system of
appointments and promotions, putting new
emphasis on the value of teaching as a
vehicle to promotion. Working with the
University, he then increased the payout on
the endowment for the 102 endowed professorships
based at the hospitals. Over a
five-year period, this added $20 million to the
affiliates' academic budgets to pay for
teaching. Martin worked to improve diversity,
launching a review of assistant and associate
professors that resulted in many promotions
of women and minorities.
He also is known for promoting collaboration
among faculty from Harvard’s many
institutions and building good relationships
among Harvard-affiliated hospitals. Martin
also led building campaigns and helped
create several new programs at Harvard,
including the Department of Systems Biology,
the Center for Molecular and Cellular
Dynamics, the Harvard Institute for
Proteomics, the Center for Genomic
Applications and Therapeutics, and the
Program in Chemical Genetics.
Martin earned his medical degree from
the University of Alberta, Edmonton, in 1962.
He earned his doctorate in anatomy from the
University of Rochester in 1971. He recently
was named chairman of the board of trustees
of The New England Healthcare Institute,
an organization committed to transforming
FALL / WINTER 2006 37