Dartmouth Medicine HomeCurrent IssueAbout UsContact UsSearchPodcasts

PDF Version   Printer-Friendly Version

Vital Signs

Worthy of note: Honors, awards, appointments, etc.

John Wennberg, M.D., the director of Dartmouth's Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences, was once again named to Modern Healthcare magazine's annual list of the "50 Most Powerful Physician Executives in Health Care." He was ranked 43rd on the list this year.

James Weinstein, D.O., a professor and chair of orthopaedic surgery, received the Wiltse Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine. The award goes to a scientist, clinician, or researcher who has made major contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the field of spinal disorders.

William A. Nelson, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychiatry, was granted an honorary doctorate of humane letters by Elmhurst College in suburban Chicago. A 1968 graduate of Elmhurst, Nelson was recognized for his teaching and scholarship in health-care ethics.

Murray Korc, M.D., a professor of medicine and chair of the Department of Medicine, was recently elected to membership in the American Association of Physicians; the group is considered the premier society for physician-scientists.

Allen Dietrich, M.D., a professor of community and family medicine, received the Best Research Paper Award from the Society of Teachers in Family Medicine. His paper, published in the British Medical Journal, was titled "Re-engineering Systems for the Treatment of Depression in Primary Care: Cluster Randomised

Controlled Trial." (See the article "Phone is key to novel psychiatric approach" from the Winter 2004 issue of Dartmouth Medicine for more about Dietrich's work.)

David Robbins, Ph.D., an associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology, was appointed to the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Lori Arviso Alvord, M.D., an assistant professor of surgery and associate dean of student and multicultural affairs, was the keynote speaker at three medical school commencement ceremonies in 2006: the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, and the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education in New York City.

Jason Moore, Ph.D., an associate professor of genetics, served as program chair for the Fourth European Workshop on Evolutionary Computation and Machine Learning in Bioinformatics in Budapest, Hungary.

Mae Jemison, M.D., an adjunct professor of community and family medicine, received an honorary doctor of science degree at the 2006 Dartmouth College Commencement exercises. Jemison, the first black woman astronaut in the U.S., is now active worldwide in science literacy and sustainable development. She has founded two companies that are devoted to integrating science and technology into society, as well as an annual international science camp that aims to build critical-thinking skills.

Leslie Fall, M.D., and Norman Berman, M.D., both associate professors of pediatrics, received the 2006 Innovation in Clinical Medical Student Education Award from the American Association of Medical Colleges' Northeast Group on Educational Affairs, for their work on the

Computer-assisted Learning in Pediatrics Project.

Christopher Connor, M.D., an associate professor of surgery (ophthalmology), received a 2006 Best Paper award from the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. His paper was titled "Lensotomy: Phaco Initiated 2-Stage Capsulorhexis."

Martin Palmeri, M.D., a second-year resident in internal medicine, received a 2006 Leadership Award from the American Medical Association Foundation.

Kristin Wallace, Ph.D., a research associate and postdoctoral fellow in biostatistics and epidemiology, received a student award from the American Association for Cancer Research for a presentation on selenium and bladder cancer.

Crystal Piffath, a doctoral student in molecular and cellular biology, was among a select group of graduate students nationwide granted a three-year fellowship by the National Science Foundation.

Abigail Proffer, a second-year medical student, was elected as the northeast regional delegate for student affairs to the Association of American Medical Colleges' Organization of Student Representatives.

The Dartmouth-Hitchcock Community Health Center was one of 36 family medicine practices from all across the country chosen to participate in the TransforMED National Demonstration Project. TransforMED is an initiative of the American Academy of Family Physicians. The project intends to help practices apply a new model of family medicine that puts the patient first and that emphasizes effective and efficient care.

Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital was recently recognized as being among the U.S. hospitals with the most complete and compliant coding practices. MHMH ranked 28th among the 239 major teaching hospitals that were analyzed and was the only New England hospital recognized in this category. The analysis was performed by HSS, a company in the coding and reimbursement field.


If you'd like to offer feedback about this article, we'd welcome getting your comments at DartMed@Dartmouth.edu.

This article may not be reproduced or reposted without permission. To inquire about permission, contact DartMed@Dartmouth.edu.

Dartmouth Medical SchoolDartmouth-Hitchcock Medical CenterWhite River Junction VAMCNorris Cotton Cancer CenterDartmouth College