Above, Drs. Jamal Rama, Cynthia Carmichael, Diane Sklar and Robert Lundstrom receive 2017 TPMG’s research and teaching awards.
Inside KP-October 23, 2017
Four physicians from The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG) were recently honored with Research and Teaching Awards. The Morris F. Collen Research Award recognizes TPMG physicians who make significant contributions to scientific literature and to the health of Kaiser Permanente communities. The Teaching Award for Excellence in Medical Education acknowledges the extraordinary accomplishments of practicing clinicians who also make significant contributions to the clinical education of their colleagues at KP and to the graduate medical education of its residents. Meet this year’s honorees.
Robert Lundstrom, MD
Cardiology, KP San Francisco
Morris F. Collen Research Award
During his 40-year career as a cardiologist with TPMG, Robert Lundstrom, MD, has initiated, facilitated, or participated in well over a dozen research projects. He has been involved in national and KP-centric studies spanning the spectrum of cardiac disease, from rare conditions in women such as stress cardiomyopathy and spontaneous coronary artery dissection, to heart attack management and the relationship between alcohol and heart disease. Dr. Lundstrom has initiated collaborations among medical centers throughout the country, including Mayo Clinic, Stanford University, and University of California, San Francisco, many of which have helped shape cardiovascular care, both within KP Northern California and beyond.
Jamal Rana, MD
Cardiology, KP Oakland
Morris F. Collen Research Award
“Accuracy of the Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Risk Equation in a Large Contemporary, Multiethnic Population,” the study by Jamal Rana, MD, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (May 2016), examines the usefulness of an updated risk calculator recommended by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association in 2013. Dr. Rana and Alan Go, MD, director of the Comprehensive Clinical Research Unit at the KP Northern California Division of Research, looked at the health records of over 300,000 KP members and found that in a diverse, “real-world” population, the calculator substantially overestimated the risk of a heart attack or stroke. One of the largest studies of its kind, it also was highlighted in Time magazine.
Cynthia Carmichael, MD
Family Medicine, KP Pinole
Teaching Award for Excellence in Clinical Medical Education
Cynthia Carmichael, MD, saw an opportunity to help family medicine physicians integrate adult medicine, pediatrics, and gynecology into their scope of practice. She helped develop an innovative approach to Continuing Medical Education that uses a hybrid model of practice inquiry and small-group, practice-based learning. Initially offered as part of a TPMG family medicine conference, the session was so well received that today she trains fellow family physician educators to facilitate the workshops quarterly at 14 sites across Northern California. She also recently presented the hybrid model at a national conference for the Society of Teachers and Family Medicine.
Diane Sklar, MD
Urogynecology, KP San Francisco
Teaching Award for Excellence in Undergraduate and Graduate Medical Education
Diane Sklar, MD, instills confidence and enthusiasm in her students through hands-on learning and leading by example. “Residents have even coined a verb after her — ‘to sklar’ — which means to arrive out of nowhere to help a colleague at just the right time: in the Operating Room, Labor and Delivery, or even the hallway,” said Maria Ansari, MD, physician-in-chief, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco. In addition to being director of the 4th-year clerkship program at KP San Francisco and clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, Dr. Sklar leads KP residents on gynecologic surgical missions to Central America and Africa — where they provide medical care to patients while teaching specialized techniques to local physicians.
This article originally appeared in Inside KP
