Shaping the next generation of physicians is rewarding, valuable, and at times challenging work, especially in the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. In recognition of the many program leaders, faculty, administrators, and others who bring their best to helping the next generation of Penn Medicine’s residents and fellows, the UPHS Office of Graduate Medical Education (GME) recently debuted its first annual GME Awards.
Nominations were solicited from the broad GME community in a number in categories spanning many aspects of GME, and yielded in some cases more than one winner per category. The nomination letters spoke to the winners’ many achievements and support for Penn Medicine’s GME mission. For instance, Bonnie Rosen from the Department of Otolaryngology was one of two Outstanding Program Administrator/Coordinator Award recipients, and was noted for her tireless dedication to her program’s residents and as “the heart and soul of the residency program.” As another example, Family Medicine Assistant Professor Jenny Wang, MD, who also serves as director of Quality Improvement and Scholarly Activity as well as associate program director for the department’s residents, won raves for advocating for marginalized patients and for teaching her residents to do the same. An Orthopaedic Surgery resident, Ciaran O’Brien, MD, and a Dermatology fellow, Jun Zhang, MD, were both described as outstanding and compassionate teachers of medical students and other residents.
“We have so many really talented, committed, dedicated program directors, associate program directors, program administrators and coordinators, faculty, and house staff, I thought it would be a good tradition to start honoring a small fraction of them each year with these awards,” said Jeffrey S. Berns, MD, vice president and associate dean for Graduate Medical Education at Penn Medicine. “These awards highlight the many accomplishments of the honored individuals but also speak to how wonderful the whole GME community is at Penn Medicine.”
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS!
OUTSTANDING PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR/ COORDINATOR AWARD
- Lissette Murria | Anesthesiology
- Bonnie Rosen | Otolaryngology
OUTSTANDING PROGRAM DIRECTOR AWARD
- Todd Barton, MD | Internal Medicine
- Lauren Weinberger Conlon, MD | Emergency Medicine
GME CITIZENSHIP AWARD
GME OUTSTANDING CLINICAL TEACHER AWARD
- Jenny Wang, MD | Family Medicine
RESIDENT/FELLOW AS TEACHER AWARD
- Ciaran O’Brien, MD | Surgery
- Junqian Zhang, MD | Micrographic Surgery and Dermatologic Oncology
GME MENTORSHIP AWARD
- Judd Flesch, MD | Internal Medicine
- Lisa Levine, MD, MSCE | Maternal Fetal Medicine
INNOVATION IN MEDICAL EDUCATION
- Robert Benson Jones, MD | Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism