04/09/2018
Ohio ACEP Announces 2018 Annual Awards Recipients
Ohio ACEP is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2018 Bill Hall Award for Service, Emergency Medicine Physician of the Year Award, Outstanding Emergency Medicine Resident of the Year Award, Emergency Physician Advocacy Award, Emergency Physician Medical Education Award, and the Emergency Physician Leadership Award. This year, the recipient of the Bill Hall Award is Gary R. Katz, MD, MBA, FACEP; the recipient of the Emergency Medicine Physician of the Year Award is Emile El-Shammaa, MD, FACEP; the recipient of the Outstanding Emergency Medicine Resident of the Year Award is Katherine H. Buck, MD; the recipients of the Emergency Physician Advocacy Award are Tanner Gronowski, DO, Andrew Kalnow, DO, and Andrew Little, DO; the recipient of the Emergency Physician Medical Education Award is Steven T. Dorsey, MD, FACEP; and the recipient of the Emergency Physician Leadership Award is Diane L. Gorgas, MD.
Dr. William Hall served as Chapter President from 1974 to 1975 and as Treasurer from 1979 to 1985. The award that bears his name, the Bill Hall Award for Service to Ohio Chapter ACEP, is the highest honor Ohio ACEP bestows, and it has been presented 28 times to Ohio ACEP members who have served the Chapter with distinction. Physicians who have received the Bill Hall Award have made a significant contribution to emergency medicine and to Ohio Chapter ACEP and reflect the character of Dr. Hall, such as selfless giving of time and enthusiasm for patient care.
Dr. Gary Katz embodies these qualities perfectly. He has served Ohio ACEP in multiple leadership roles, including service as a Board Member, Chair of the Leadership Development and Government Affairs committees, and a Councillor representing Ohio ACEP. He also served two terms as Ohio ACEP President, a role in which his strategic business focus and guidance were invaluable.
Dr. Katz has been closely involved with ACEP Council, the national College’s primary deliberative body. He represented the Ohio Chapter as a Councillor from 2008-2017 and was recognized with the Council Horizon Leadership Award in 2011. He also served on a number of Council committees, including the Reference Committee, Council Tellers Committee, and Council Steering Committee. In 2017, the Council elected him to serve as Vice-Speaker.
In addition to his strong belief in the importance of physician advocacy, Dr. Katz has a keen interest in seeking out and helping to develop future physician leaders in emergency medicine, an interest that has driven his close involvement in Ohio ACEP’s Leadership Development Academy.
In her letter nominating Dr. Katz for the Bill Hall Award, Ohio ACEP President, Dr. Purva Grover, commended him as an established leader with an impressive record of service, including 18 years of activism within organized medicine. “Dr. Katz,” wrote Dr. Grover, “has always demonstrated the highest level of commitment to Emergency Medicine, our Chapter, and the College… He is most deserving of the Ohio Chapter’s highest honor. ”
The Emergency Physician of the Year Award was created to recognize clinicians of unusual merit and celebrate physicians who encourage members to pursue the ideals of emergency medicine. Recipients of this award serve as outstanding physician role models, maintain high professional standards, provide high-quality care, and demonstrate dedication to emergency medicine.
Dr. Emile El-Shammaa, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, exemplifies each of these qualities. A highly respected clinician and educator, he has been tireless in educating his residents and students while also expanding his own breadth of knowledge. Dr. El-Shammaa is held in high esteem by his medical students and residents. He was honored by his residents as Teacher of the Year in 2004 and Pediatric Emergency Medicine Teacher of the Year in 1999, 2002, and 2007.
As an attending physician splitting his time between the OSU Wexner Medical Center and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Dr. El-Shammaa brings tremendous value to both organizations with his extensive expertise of both adult and pediatric emergency medicine, as well as a global knowledge of the specialty, having studied environmental emergency medicine, dive medicine, and toxicology in Queensland, Australia.
Dr. El-Shammaa was nominated as Emergency Physician of the Year by his two of his colleagues, Drs. Mark Angelos (Professor and Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, OSU Wexner Medical Center) and Nicholas Kman (Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, OSU Wexner Medical Center). In their letter, Drs. Angelos and Kman describe Dr. El-Shammaa as the “consummate, compassionate, and competent emergency physician.”
The Outstanding Emergency Medicine Resident of the Year Award was established to recognize a resident of outstanding merit who exhibits exemplary clinical promise, leadership, and commitment to their patients and emergency medicine.
Dr. Katherine (Katie) Buck, a second-year resident at The Ohio State University Department of Emergency Medicine, epitomizes the qualities this award was created to celebrate. She regularly demonstrates an unyielding dedication to education, excellence in clinical work, and quality patient care. Dr. Buck has easily gained the trust and respect of her teammates, including fellow physicians, nurses, and emergency department staff.
She is also committed to her fellow residents, having served on the program’s Residency Wellness and PGY-1 Orientation Committees. Working with the Tiered Mentorship Program for OSU Medical Students as well as the MEDPATH Post-Baccalaureate Program, Dr. Buck enthusiastically serves as a mentor and a role model to aspiring and new physicians. Dr. Buck will be one of the program’s Chief Residents beginning this summer and has given more than ten lectures to residents and medical students in 2018.
As a medical student and now as a resident, Dr. Buck has been active in national emergency medicine organizations. She served as a Medical Student Ambassador to the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) and is currently a member of SAEM’s Resident and Medical Student Committee (RAMS). Her academic and clinical interest in improving acute care for older adults has also served her well as Resident Representative to the Academy of Geriatric Emergency Medicine (AGEM).
In their award nomination letter, Dr. Buck’s OSU Department of Emergency Medicine colleagues, Drs. Daniel Martin (Vice Chair of Education), Sorabh Khandelwal (Program Director), and Jennifer Frey (Clinical Research Director), praised her as a remarkable resident physician and an emerging leader in her field “who never gives anything less than her very best of herself to her patients and teammates.”
Ohio ACEP established the Emergency Physician Advocacy Award to celebrate leadership in legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of emergency medicine. Recipients of the award advocate for their specialty, their communities, and their patients.
Though presenting the Advocacy Award to hosts of a podcast is a first for the Chapter, Drs. Tanner Gronowski, Andrew Kalnow, and Andrew Little perfectly embody the award criteria. The EM Over Easy hosts played a key role in the success of Ohio ACEP’s 2017 advocacy event, Morning Rounds & Coffee Grounds, by recording a special advocacy episode featuring interviews with key physician leaders.
They returned to the Ohio Statehouse for the 2018 Morning Rounds & Coffee Grounds and interviewed Rep. Bob Cupp (R—Lima) about how physicians can support his legislation, House Bill 7, which would make reforms to medical liability laws, including strengthening Ohio’s “I’m Sorry” law, a major priority for Ohio’s emergency physicians. The resulting podcast was a powerful “Call to Action” to physicians to get involved in advocacy efforts on behalf of their colleagues, their profession, and—most importantly— their patients.
In her letter nominating Drs. Gronowski, Kalnow, and Little, Ohio ACEP President Dr. Purva Grover praised the trio as true leaders in their field and commended them for elevating the importance of emergency medicine advocacy to their audience.
The Emergency Physician Medical Education Award was established to recognize contributions to education in the field of emergency medicine. The honor is bestowed upon emergency physicians who have exhibited exemplary teaching skills, implemented an exceptional education program, or developed an innovative teaching model.
Dr. Steven Dorsey, Associate Program Director at Case Western Reserve University-MetroHealth Medical Center-Cleveland Clinic Emergency Medicine Residency Program, meets and exceeds these criteria. As an instructor, he is greatly admired and respected among his residents and his peers, and his expert knowledge of a wide array of topics is evident during his lectures, which are known for always being engaging, entertaining, and—most of all—effective.
Dr. Dorsey has invested countless hours behind the scenes, working to continuously improve the resident experience at his program. Tireless in his dedication to his students, he has been instrumental in revamping several rotations for his residency and has served as Chair of the Residency Evaluation Committee. This year, Dr. Dorsey has continued to innovate by incorporating the e-Oral exam format into the residency program, which was met with great excitement by residents and has so far produced outstanding results.
In addition, for over 10 years, Dr. Dorsey has served as a mock oral board examiner for Ohio ACEP’s Oral Board Review Course. Participants have consistently said his feedback is invaluable and has helped them increase their confidence to successfully pass the exam.
Dr. Dorsey was nominated by Ohio ACEP President-Elect, Dr. John Queen, who is a colleague of Dr. Dorsey’s at Cleveland Clinic. In his nomination letter, he praised Dr. Dorsey’s commitment to his students. One of his recently graduated residents, Dr. Brian Graham, echoed that sentiment, saying Dr. Dorsey’s mentorship, encouragement, and his lead-by-example style make him an ideal role model for residents as both an educator and a clinician.
The Emergency Physician Leadership Award was established to recognize outstanding leadership in emergency medicine. Recipients of this award have served as role models to colleagues and/or chapter members, and his or her personal leadership attributes should include, but are not limited to: inspiration, innovation, teamwork, consensus-building, and service.
Dr. Diane Gorgas, Professor and Vice Chair of Academic Affairs at The Ohio State University Department of Emergency Medicine, is a physician who embodies each of these qualities. Her leadership has had an enormous impact, not just on her program and her students, but on communities all over the world.
In her time as a leader at Ohio State, Dr. Gorgas has made multiple advancements to the program, including overseeing the expansion of the program to 14 residents per year. And as Co-Chair of the program’s Departmental Parity and Equity Committee, she spearheaded efforts to recruit, develop, and mentor an increasingly diverse faculty, a benefit for both the program and the diverse communities served by the OSU Wexner Medical Center.
Dr. Gorgas has a keen interest in global health and is the Executive Director of the Office of Global Health at the OSU College of Medicine. She has spent untold hours on projects throughout the developing world, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Costa Rica, and Swaziland. As part of her work with “Buckeyes without Borders,” Dr. Gorgas regularly takes residents and students to international sites to work on global health initiatives. She is also currently assisting with emergency medicine residency program development in Haiti, Rwanda, and Tanzania.
Dr. Gorgas was nominated for the Leadership Award by Dr. Daniel Martin, who is Professor and Vice Chair of Education at the Ohio State University Department of Emergency Medicine. In his nomination letter, Dr. Martin praised Dr. Gorgas not just as a leader, but as an educator of leaders. He described Dr. Gorgas as a respected leader in a wide array of topics and endeavors, from global health and infant mortality to medical training and public health education.
The 2018 Ohio ACEP Annual Awards will be presented to honorees on April 26, 2018, at the Emergency Medicine Forum in Columbus. Congratulations to Drs. Gary Katz, Emile El-Shammaa, Katherine Buck, Tanner Gronowski, Andrew Kalnow, Andrew Little, Steven Dorsey, and Diane Gorgas on their well-deserved honors!