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Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teaching Award
Richard M. Schwartzstein, M.D.
Harvard Medical School
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
The Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher
Awards were established by the AOA medical honor society in 1988
to provide national recognition to faculty members who have distinguished
themselves in medical student education. The award is named for
long-time AOA executive secretary Robert J. Glaser, M.D.
As a medical educator, Richard Schwartzstein skillfully integrates
his extensive knowledge of basic and clinical sciences to teach
students about respiratory pathology. As a clinician and researcher,
he carefully weighs what patients say about their breathing difficulties
to better understand dyspnea. And by successfully using each experience
to enrich the other, he shows students how to balance a multifaceted
and rewarding career in academic medicine.
"For me, active work as a clinical investigator
has been critical to enhancing my capabilities as a teacher,
and has allowed me to provide a model for students to consider
as they contemplate their own career choices."
-Dr. Richard Schwartzstein |
The recipient of an "unprecedented" 13 teaching awards voted by
his students, Dr. Schwartzstein is professor of medicine and faculty
associate dean for medical education at Harvard Medical School (HMS).
He is also vice president for education at HMS affiliate Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and serves as clinical director
of the center's Division of Pulmonary Medicine. Additionally, Dr.
Schwartzstein is executive director of the Carl J. Shapiro Institute
for Education and Research at HMS and BIDMC.
Since joining the faculty of HMS two decades ago, Dr. Schwartzstein,
says nominating Dean Joseph B. Martin, M.D., has developed a reputation
as "perhaps our most outstanding and innovative teacher." In addition
to serving as course director for the first-year course in integrated
human physiology, Dr. Schwartzstein teaches the entire respiratory
component himself. He is also recognized for having instituted one
of the first teaching consultation services in the nation to be
based at an academic health center.
Besides "motivating students to heights they never believed they
would attain," as Dr. Martin describes, Richard Schwartzstein has
played a pivotal role in reforming medical education and training.
At HMS, he headed a working group on curricular reform that resulted
in reorganization of first-year studies, and at BIDMC, he presided
over a comprehensive strategic review that transformed the structure
of undergraduate and graduate medical education. Currently, he is
overseeing implementation of a pilot clinical clerkship program
he developed that provides greater integration of basic and clinical
science studies, utilizes an innovative approach to case conferences,
and teaches students how to self-reflect through portfolio writing.
At the national level, Dr. Schwartzstein has coordinated numerous
proceedings and activities related to his research focus of dyspnea
and his ongoing efforts to improve medical education. In his leadership
role at the Carl J. Shapiro Institute, he has worked with the AAMC
to lead two conferences: a 2005 conference on the role of simulation
and, earlier this year, a conference on key issues affecting medical
education research.
A graduate himself of HMS, Dr. Schwartzstein earned his A.B. from
Princeton University and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After completing
his residency in internal medicine at BIDMC, he was a pulmonary
and critical care fellow in the Respiratory Division of Brigham
and Women's Hospital in Boston, and later a Kay Senior Fellow in
Medical Education at the Carl J. Shapiro Institute.
In addition to the unparalleled accolades from HMS students, Dr.
Schwartzstein has been recognized numerous times by his peers. In
2005, he received both the Robert C. Moellering Jr., M.D. Award
from BIDMC for excellence in teaching, research, and clinical care
and the Clinical Educator Award from the Clinical Problems Assembly
of the American Thoracic Society. In 2006, he received the Frank
Netter Award for Special Contributions to Medical Education for
his textbook, Respiratory Physiology: A Clinical Approach.
Find out more about the Alpha
Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teaching Award, nominate
a deserving individual, and view a list of previous award recipients.
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