Recent Awards and Honors for the BIDMC Community

Below is a list of awards, honors and accomplishments the BIDMC community received in recent months.

U.S. News & World Report recently issued its Best Hospitals rankings for 2021-22, and BIDMC was once again ranked as a leading hospital in Boston. BIDMC was recognized as a national leader and ranked among the top 50 hospitals in the country in four specialties — Cancer (#24), Diabetes & Endocrinology (#41), Gastroenterology & GI Surgery (#40) and Gynecology (#37). In addition, two specialties and ten procedures and conditions were rated as High Performing (i.e., in the top 25% nationally). U.S. News & World Report also rates hospitals regionally, and BIDMC ranked No. 3 in the state.

BIDMC was recognized by LinkedIn on their published inaugural list of Top Companies in Boston. They define Top Companies as being “the best workplaces to grow your career,” and BIDMC placed No. 14.

The Massachusetts Commission for the Blind named BIDMC as its Employer of the Year in recognition of the medical center’s commitment to diversity and inclusion for individuals who are blind and visually impaired.

In a capital funding rollout totaling $18 million to support research infrastructure, data science and drug delivery, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center awarded BIDMC research teams two grants. A Research Infrastructure Program award will be used to launch BIDMC’s Spatial Technologies Unit, led by Ioannis Vlachos, PhD, Frank Slack, PhD, and Win Hide, PhD. The second grant was received by Ramy Arnaout, MD, DPhil, as part of MLSC’s Bits to Bytes program. Arnaout’s project will focus on building clinically annotated datasets that link the presence of specific antibodies and TCRs to specific cancers and infectious diseases. The resulting dataset may one day be used for research or diagnostic purposes. 

The FIRST Program, (James R. Rodrigue, PhD, Professor and Vice-Chair of Research, Department of Surgery, and Aaron Fleishman, MPH, Associate in Surgery); Richard and Susan Smith Center for Outcomes Research Mentorship Program (Robert Yeh, MD, MSc, and Rishi Wadhera, MD, MPP); and the Carl J. Shapiro Institute Center for Education & Research (Richard Schwartzstein, MD and Amy Sullivan, EdD) were all awarded the 2021 Program Award for Culture of Excellence in Mentoring given by the Harvard Medical School. HMS established this mentoring award to recognize the efforts of a department, division, office or program to foster innovation and sustainability in mentoring while building a culture of mentoring.

Joséphine Cool, MD, Medicine/Hospital Medicine, Sara Dong, MD, Infectious Diseases, Sara Neves, MD, Anesthesiology, and Jeffrey William, MD, Medicine/Nephrology received the Rabkin Fellowship in Medical Education. The Rabkin Fellowship was established in 1998 to provide Harvard Medical School faculty the opportunity to develop necessary skills to launch or advance academic careers in medical education and/or academic leadership. The Fellowship is open to all faculty with a primary appointment at Harvard Medical School and who currently teach at Harvard Medical School or a Harvard-affiliated institution.

Megan Anderson, MD, Assistant Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery, was elected President of the New England Orthopaedic Society for 2020-2022.

Meredith Atkins, MD, Obstetrics and Gynecology, was honored with an Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award from the Harvard Medical School graduating class of 2021. This award recognizes her commitment to teaching and mentorship.

Harvard University has awarded Dan Barouch, MD, PhD, the coveted George Ledlie Prize for his work in creating an effective vaccine for COVID-19 developed by Johnson & Johnson, one of three granted emergency use authorization in the U.S. Last bestowed in 2017, the prize is given no more frequently than every two years to a member of the Harvard community who has, “since the last awarding of said prize, by research, discovery, or otherwise, made the most valuable contribution to science, or in any way for the benefit of mankind.”

Rupal Bhatt, MD, PhD, Division of Hematology and Oncology, received two Department of Defense IDEA Awards for her laboratory's work in developing novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of kidney cancer.

Mary Bouxsein, PhD, Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery, was selected to receive the Adele Boskey Award from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR), awarded annually to recognize an ASBMR member for outstanding and major scientific contributions, leadership and mentorship in the area of bone and mineral research, especially in the areas of mechanisms of mineralization, bone mineral, bone quality and mechanobiology.

Stephanie Buss, MD, has received an NIH K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award to investigate the use of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as a biomarker in Alzheimer’s disease. 

Ed Clune, MD, received the 2021 Nicholas M. Greene, MD, Award for Outstanding Humanitarian Contribution. This award is given annually by the American Society of Anesthesiologists to a member whose career has supported international anesthetic education, care and volunteerism.

John Dalrymple, MD, Gynecologic Oncologist and Vice Chair for Faculty Development and Faculty Affairs, has been appointed the Ellen and Melvin Gordon Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology and Medical Education at Harvard Medical School (HMS). This prestigious appointment exemplifies Dr. Dalrymple's increasingly central role in the assessment, evaluation and continuous improvement of many aspects of the MD curriculum at HMS, where he serves as Associate Dean for Medical Education Quality Improvement and faculty leader of the Office of Educational Quality Improvement.

Kim Dukes, Diversity Talent Strategist at BIDMC, received the 2021 Frank X. McCarthy Diversity Champion Award from the Northeast Human Resources Association.

Christopher Gibbons, MD, MMSc, Physician in the Department of Neurology, received the Irwin Schatz Award from the American Academy of Neurology in April 2021. This award honors neurologists that have made significant contributions to the field of autonomic medicine.

The Arnold-Warfield Pain Center is a site for a new research study funded by Boston Scientific to evaluate the effectiveness of their commercially approved neuro-stimulation systems to relieve pain. Jatinder Gill, MD, is the primary investigator on this multi-center global registry clinical trial funded by Boston Scientific.

Janet Carey Guarino, MSN, RN/CNP, Assistant Nursing Director, Labor and Delivery, recently received the Organization of Nurse Leaders (ONL)'s prestigious Laudio/ONL Award. This award demonstrates her strong leadership skills and continuous journey towards excellence. Additionally, Janet's paper, “Innovative strategies to facilitate safe intimate partner violence assessment and intervention during a pandemic and beyond," was recently accepted for publication in Nursing for Women's Health, the practice journal of the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses. 

Lissa Kapust, LICSW, and head of the “Wellness Works” programs in Neurology at BIDMC, received an award from the Parkinson Foundation to support patients with Parkinson’s Disease who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community. This project is being conducted in collaboration with Lisa Krinsky, LICSW, and Director of the national LGBTQ+ Aging Project at the Fenway Health Center.

Jonathan Kruskal, MD, PhD, FSAR, FACR, Chair, Department of Radiology, was named the 121st president of the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS), the first and oldest radiology society in the U.S. He assumed the role during the organization’s annual meeting in April, and his inaugural president’s message—"The Dual Pandemics: Dismantling Systemic Injustices Through Intentional DEI Strategies and Inclusive Team-Building"—has been published in the society’s InPractice magazine.

Dan Levy, PhD, has received a five-year grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for a project that aims to shed new light on underlying biological causes of migraines. The study team will look at a novel triggering mechanism they believe causes migraine headaches without aura (most migraines are not accompanied by auras).

Ara Nazarian, PhD, Vice Chair of Research and Associate Professor of Orthopaedics, and Edward Rodriguez, MD, PhD, Chief, Orthopaedic Surgery, were awarded The Blavatnik Therapeutics Challenge Awards, which is intended to accelerate the development of therapeutics within Harvard Medical School and its affiliated hospitals, with the goal of achieving licensable intellectual property and potentially creating new companies within a two-year timeframe. Additionally, Dr. Nazarian was awarded three NIH SBIR awards and one Department of Defense award with other colleagues.

Brian O’Gara, MD, has received a grant from The Binational Industrial Relations and Development Foundation for a study evaluating whether a virtual reality program can reduce perioperative pain and anxiety for at risk surgical patients.

Nancy Oriol, MD, Associate Professor of Anesthesia, is the recipient of the 2021 Massachusetts Medical Society Reducing Health Disparities Award. She is a longtime advocate for improving care for underserved communities and reducing medical disparities for people of color and is one of the founders of the HMS Family Van that travels to local underserved communities and provides basic primary and preventive care to residents.

Alan Penzias, MD, Associate Director of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility in Obstetrics and Gynecology, has been selected to serve as Director-at-large for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, effective July 1, 2021. In this role, he will help lead the mission of ASRM to advance the science and practice of reproductive medicine.

Nathan Raines, MD, MPH, Division of Nephrology, was chosen as one of the Doris Duke Foundation’s grantees for his work that aims to improve the lives of those with kidney disease/injury.

Jim Rawson, MD, Vice Chair, Operations and Special Projects, Department of Radiology, was named Vice President of the American College of Radiology (ACR) during the organization’s annual meeting in May 2021. He also became a new board member for the Canadian Association of Radiology (CAR) and will serve as the ACR representative on the CAR board. Rawson was also named Examiner on the 2021 Baldrige Board of Examiners (one of just three Massachusetts members this year). As part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Program promotes U.S. innovation & industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards & technology.

Jeremy Richards, MD, MA, Attending Physician, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, and Director of the Medical Education Research Laboratory at the Carl J. Shapiro Institute of Education and Research, received the American Thoracic Society Clinical Problems Assembly Educator Award.

Simon C. Robson, MD, PhD, FRCP, Director, Center for Inflammation Research in the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, received the Joseph J. and Josephine A. Gazzola Family Chair in the field of Inflammation Research. Funding for this chair was provided by a generous donor and was designated to support research pertaining to inflammation and autoimmune disorders of the liver and GI tract. 

Seward Rutkove, MD, Chair, Department of Neurology at BIDMC, received the 2021 Innovation Award from the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine. Rutkove was also given the Nancy Lurie Marks Chair in Neurology at Harvard Medical School.

Jennifer Scott, MD, MBA, MPH, Division Director of Global and Community Health, recently received a William F. Milton Fund award for her project, “Designing telehealth interventions for women during COVID-19 in East Africa: Understanding gender considerations and mitigating risks of gender-based violence.” The Milton Fund is one of the oldest bequests made to Harvard University, supporting research projects in the fields of medicine, geography, history and science. Winning projects must either promote the physical and material welfare and prosperity of the human race or investigate and determine the value and importance of any discovery or invention.

Shahla Siddiqui, MD, received a John Hedley-Whyte Faculty Development Grant for her project, “Compassionate Care in the ICU.” This award is part of the Eleanor and Miles Shore Faculty Development Awards Program at Harvard Medical School that provides support and protected time for junior faculty to pursue academic activities

Veronique VanderHorst, MD, PhD,  Associate Professor at the Department of Neurology, was awarded a multicenter research grant by the National Institutes of Aging (R01) to establish sleep apnea as a non-cognitive phenotype of brainstem neurodegenerative pathologies in older adults. This new line extends ongoing work in mobility and aging.