AAPS Announces Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., Health Policy Leadership Award

Mar 06, 2012

The American Association of Physician Specialists, Inc. (AAPS) has announced nominations for the first annual Louis W. Sullivan, MD, Health Policy Leadership Award are being accepted (deadline for nominations April 30). The award is named in honor of Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1989-93) and founder of the prestigious Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA.

Dr. Sullivan, currently a public member of the AAPS Board of Directors, and is Chairman of the Board of the National

Health Museum in Atlanta.

Candidates for the Sullivan Award will have made, or be making a truly outstanding contribution through an initiative to improve the health status of individuals, targeted groups, communities or the nation. The individual may have a primary role either inside or

outside the public health arena.

“Dr. Sullivan is a passionate advocate for health education, promoting healthy lifestyles and disease prevention, “said AAPS President, Robert Cerrato, D.O., J.D. “It is an honor for AAPS to recognize a significant contribution to the public health in his name.”

Nominees must meet at least one of the following criteria:

The candidate must have served as a champion in promoting major health policy changes
The candidate must have used innovative methods of promoting public health policies to targeted stakeholders
The candidate must have been a policy maker who affected major health policy legislation
The candidate must have advocated for health policy improvements
The candidate must have been recognized for a distinguishing achievement related to health policy

To nominate an individual for the award, please visit https://www.aapsus.org/sullivanaward. The initial award will be presented June 26 at the 60th AAPS House of Delegates & Annual Scientific of the Meeting in Los Angeles.

The American Association of Physician Specialists, Inc.® is the governing body of the American Board of Physician Specialties which certifies qualified allopathic and osteopathic physicians in 17 specialties.

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Far too often, medicine is led by less than 5% of non-practicing physicians taking away and replacing the voice of the 95% of physicians practicing and placing patient safety and care first on the front lines every day. The American Board of Physician Specialties has raised the standards in physician board certification not only in the quality of their boards of certification, but in hearing and allowing for the voice of those active physicians caring directly for patients. Having been a part of the ABPS over the last 28 years has allowed me to grow as a woman leader in a field often wrought with challenges. It helped me and others raise the bar of the standards of care in my specialty, Emergency Medicine, through their Board Certification in Emergency Medicine (BCEM). ABPS also helped raise the standards of care for 21st century medicine through their certifications in other specialties, particularly in Integrative Medicine & Disaster Medicine. Having physician voices heard matters to medicine and is essential in the betterment of patient safety and care.

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Sarah E. Gilbert, MD, FAAEP

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