Tag Archives: Awards

UMKC Researcher Awarded $3.3 Million Grant to Prevent Diabetes

The National Institutes of Health awarded a $3.3 million grant to Jannette Berkley-Patton, professor, at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, to help improve diabetes prevention outcomes with African Americans.

“This is an extension of what we’ve been doing in the School of Medicine with Project FIT, which stands for Faith Influencing Transformation” says Berkley-Patton, Ph.D., director of the UMKC Health Equity Institute and the Community Health Research Group. With Project FIT, nearly 900 people have participated in the program and more than 200 medical, physician assistant, nursing and health studies and psychology students have been trained as FIT health coaches to help deliver the program.

At UMKC, Berkley-Patton has won other significant grants that focus on improving the health of African Americans, and each centers on health inequities and community-engaged research with African American community-based organizations, including places of worship because of their cultural importance. This new five-year grant, which starts on April 1, will include similar strategies. To date, Berkley-Patton’s work has been supported by more than $10 million in federal grants over the past 14 years.

The grant will tailor the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Diabetes Prevention Program, an evidence-based lifestyle change intervention, with 360 African American pre-diabetic participants recruited from Truman Medical Centers. The program includes 22 group sessions that take place over one year and primarily focuses on eating healthier and exercising regularly.

Preventing diabetes can help stave off other associated chronic health issues including blindness, kidney failure and heart disease.

People who participate in the CDC program aim to lose 5 to 7 percent of their body weight and exercise 150 minutes per week, which have been shown to reduce the risk of diabetes by up to 60 percent. The program has also been found to outperform pre-diabetes drugs such as Metformin.

However, African Americans typically don’t fare as well, especially women and those with low incomes. Some of the issues include barriers such as cost of the program, transportation, childcare, access to healthy food and places to exercise. These barriers are often referred to as social determinants of health.

“With the grant, we’re trying to address every barrier related to social determinants,” Berkley-Patton said. “The most successful outcomes are correlated with attending the sessions – the more sessions attended, the better the outcomes.”

The grant will support linking Truman Medical Centers patients to FIT Diabetes Prevention Program classes in their home communities via church, community center or neighborhood association settings. The program will be culturally-tailored for African American adults. The program is at no cost to the participant – typically it costs $450 per year. In addition to Truman Medical Centers, program partners include several urban Kansas City churches, Calvary Outreach Network, YMCA, Chestnut Resource Center, KC Care Health Center, Children’s Mercy and the University of Kansas.

Although the grant begins this week during a pandemic that has Americans sheltering in place and working from home, the first year of the grant is a planning year.

“With this grant, we are looking forward to further refining our current Project FIT program to have trained UMKC students and community members working side-by-side as FIT coaches,” says Carole Bowe Thompson, project director, UMKC Community Health Research Group.

The program will be launched by this time next year.

“We are looking forward to getting started,” Berkley-Patton said. “We want to show participants that here’s a premiere program designed just for you.”

Community and Family Medicine residency director receives Women of Distinction honor

Beth Rosemergey, M.D., is being honored as a Woman of Distinction.

School of Medicine faculty member Beth Rosemergey, D.O., associate professor and director of the Community and Family Medicine Residency program, was honored recently as one of the outstanding women of Eastern Jackson County, Missouri.

For the past five years, the Independence Examiner newspaper has sponsored the annual Women of Distinction Awards. Women from the fields business, government, education and non-profit are honored based on their accomplishments and community involvement in Eastern Jackson County.

Rosemergey is the third honoree nominated by Truman Medical Center-Lakewood. Last year, Laura Doan, M.D., a 1984 UMKC School of Medicine graduate and University Health women’s care provider, was a Women of Distinction honoree. Lynette Wheeler, TMC Lakewood chief operating officer, was honored as Outstanding Woman of the Year in 2018.

An awards ceremony was to have been taken place on March 13. The event and announcement of this year’s Outstanding Woman of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award have been postponed until the end of April.

The mother of an autistic child, Rosemergey is passionate in her advocation for special needs children and their families. She has worked with local schools to develop programs that address the needs of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and was instrumental in developing state guidelines for the care of autism patients.

Rosemergey also serves as vice chair of the Department of Community and Family Medicine and medical director of the Bess Truman Family Medicine Center.

A graduate of the University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kansas City, she completed her family practice residency at UMKC and Truman Medical Center Lakewood and joined the School of Medicine faculty in 1992.

Med School announces student research summit winners

Keerthi Gondi presents his winning poster to John Foxworth, Pharm.D., director of research at the 2019 UMKC Health Sciences Student Research Summit.

Keerthi Gondi, a fifth-year medical student, and Kathryn Kyler, a bioinformatics student, were selected as the School of Medicine’s winners of the 2019 Health Sciences Student Research Summit. This year’s research event on April 17 at the UMKC Student Union drew a record 66 student posters from the medical school.

A panel of faculty judges selected the top three poster presentations among BA/MD students and chose the top two presentations from School of Medicine graduate students.

Gondi presented the winning poster, Symptomatic Versus Asymptomatic Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension in Children. The second-place award for BA/MD students went to Nikhil Havaldar, fourth-year student,  with a poster presentation on Epidemiology of Human Rhinovirus in School-Aged Children and Adolescents with Medically Attended Acute Respiratory Infection. Yicheng Bao, fourth-year student,  was the third-place winner with a poster on Visual Field Loss in Patients with Diabetes in the Absence of Clinically-Detectable Vascular Retinopathy.

In the graduate student category, Kyler presented the winning poster, The Association of Weight with Drug Dosing Variation in Children Hospitalized with Asthma. Second place went to Poghni Peri-Okonny, a graduate student in cardiovascular outcomes research, with the poster presentation, Blood Pressure Variability and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction.

This year’s faculty judges included Sarah Nyp, MD; Jessica Markham, MD; Maria Cole, PhD; Jennifer Qayum, MD; Amanda Montalbano, MD; Sean Riordan, PhD; Janelle Noel-Macdonnell; PhD; Jennifer Dilts, MD; Nilofer Qureshi, PhD; Alain Cuna, MD; Peter Koulen, PhD; Bridgette Jones, MD; Jared Bruce, PhD; Dan Heruth, PhD; Rosa Huang, PhD; Kamani Lankachandra, MD; Xiangping Chu, PhD; Wail Hassan, PhD; Jannette Berkley-Patton, PhD; and Mike Wacker, PhD.

The research summit also  included students from the health sciences schools of dentistry, pharmacy, nursing and health sciences, as well UMKC’s School of Biological Sciences. This year’s summit drew a record 100 research posters.

 

Med students receive Women’s Council Graduate Assistance awards

Five medical students have been selected as recipients of the 2019 UMKC Women’s Council Graduate Assistance Fund awards.

The students, Noor Alshami, Donya Jahandar, Elizabeth Onishchenko, Krishna Patel and Subhjit Sekhon, were selected from a pool of applicants from throughout the university. They will be formally recognized during a  reception by the Women’s Council at the Grand Street Cafe on March 7.

The awards are given to UMKC women students in post-baccalaureate approved programs. They are used to assist students in completing requirements for graduation and first professional degrees, facilitate studies beyond the classroom, and to enrich and encourage educational experiences.

Alshami received an award with a designation of outstanding merit. Her award will support her research efforts with Children’s Mercy Heart Center Research. She was recommended for the award by Geetha Raghuveer, M.D., M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.C., associate professor of pediatrics, and Mike Wacker, Ph.D., associate teaching professor, associate dean of academic affairs..

Jahandar’s award will provide aid for travel as she conducts surgical research. Jared Keeler, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and docent, and Kristen Wright, Ph.D., assistant teaching professor of biomedical sciences, are faculty who recommended her for the award.

Onishchenko received the award to help prepare for upcoming USMLE Step 2 CK and CS exams. Faculty members Darla McCarthy, Ph.D., associate teaching professor, assistant dean curriculum, and Julie Banderas, Pharm.D., F.C.C.P., B.C.P.S., chair of Graduate Health Professions in Medicine, assistant dean  of graduate studies, recommended her.

Patel also received an award with outstanding merit to support travel to national cardiology meetings to present research. John Spertus, M.D., professor biomedical and health informatics, and Timothy Bateman, M.D., professor of medicine, are faculty members who recommended her for the award.

Sekhon received an award for her research proposal to study maternal-fetal reactions to acute emotional stress in prenatal depressed mothers and correlations with fetal ultrasound measures. Prakash Chandra, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry, and Brenda Rogers, MD, FAAP, FACP, associate dean of student affairs, recommended her for the award.

 

 

 

Student research office announces 12 Sarah Morrison awards

Top row: Yicheng Bao, Shannon Demehri, Abygail Dulle, Ankit Kadakia. Middle row: Cynthia Liu, Andrew Peterson, Amber (Lelia) Sarvestani, Som Singh. Bottom row: Kevin Varghese, Firas Al-Badarin, Kathryn Kyler, Ali O. Malik

The School of Medicine Student Research Program has awarded 12 Sarah Morrison Student Research Awards for the Fall 2018 cycle. Recipients included nine medical students and three graduate students.

Sarah Morrison awards of up to $2,500 are presented to School of Medicine students each year in April and October. The awards help students become involved in and learn about a wide variety of research activities based on their interests. The research may be in the basic sciences or in clinical medicine.

Students may develop their own hypothesis and work plan or work on an established research project with their mentor. Winners of the awards are expected to present the results of the research at a School of Medicine student research event such as the UMKC Health Sciences Student Research Summit) or a similar venue as recommended by Research Administration.

More than 100 students have received Sarah Morrison awards since 2013 with an estimated $155,000 of financial support provided from the program to conduct research projects at the School of Medicine.

The next application deadline for students interested in receiving a Sarah Morrison research award is March 1 for the April award. Applicants are reviewed by a committee of faculty judges and processed through the Office of Research Administration.

For complete application information, visit the student research website.

Fall 2018 Sarah Morrison Research Awards
(Recipient / Faculty Mentor / Project title)
  • Yicheng Bao, MS 4 / Betty Drees, M.D., Professor, Dean Emerita / Prevalence and Risk Factors of Depression Among Patients with Diabetic Retinopathy
  • Shannon Demehri, MS 6 / John Wang, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Westport Anesthesia/Missouri Endowed Chair for Research / Regulation of Src Family Kinases in the Rat Brain by Adenosine
  • Abygail Dulle, MS 5/ Paula Monaghan-Nichols, Ph.D., Professor, Associate Dean for Research Administration / Prenatal Glucocorticoid Exposure for Preterm Birth: Investigating The Role Of Glucocorticoid Receptor Phosphorylation In The Development Of Neuropathology
  • Ankit Kadakia, MS 4 / Paula Monaghan-Nichols, Ph.D., Professor, Associate Dean for Research Administration / Role of Synthetic Glucocorticoid Exposure in Ocular Development and Pathology
  • Cynthia Liu, MS 4/ Gary Sutkin, M.D., Professor and Associate Dean of Women’s Health, Victor and Caroline Schutte Chair in Women’s Health / The Prevalence and Effects of Ambiguous Language on Communication Errors in the Operating Room
  • Andrew Peterson, MS 5 / Xiangping Chu, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences / Modulation of Heteromeric Acid-Sensing Ion 1 a/3 Channels by Zinc
  • Amber (Lelia) Sarvestani, MS 6 / Geetha Raghuveer, M.D., M.P.H., Professor of Pediatrics / Long Term Outcomes and Survival Following Repair of Truncus Arteriosus With and Without Interrupted Aortic Arch Utilizing Linkage of the Pediatric Cardiac Care Consortium with the National Death Index and Organ Procurement Transplantation Network Datasets
  • Som Singh, MS 2 / Li Zhang, M.D., Professor of Biomedical and Health Informatics / The Effect of GM26870 Gene Expression on Acetaminophen Hepatotoxicity
  • Kevin Varghese, MS 2 / Alain Cuna, M.D., Assistant Professor of Pediatrics / Effectiveness and safety of repeat use of postnatal steroids for bronchopulmonary dysplasia
  • Firas Al-Badarin, grad student / Tim Bateman, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine and Radiology / Cardiovascular Outcomes of Patients with Normal Positron Emission Tomography and Single Photon Computed Tomography Myocardial Perfusion Imaging
  • Kathryn Kyler, grad student / Kim Smolderen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biomedical and Health Informatics / Variation in medication dosing and guideline adherence by weight status for commonly prescribed medications during pediatric asthma hospitalizations
  • Ali O. Malik, grad student / Paul Chan, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine / Association between hospital reimbursement models and rates of normal elective coronary angiograms

Sutkin receives NIH grant to develop technology for safer surgeries

Gary Sutkin, M.D., has received a $600,000 research grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop technology that will make surgeries safer.

Gary Sutkin, M.D., director of the UMKC School of Medicine’s Surgical Innovations Laboratory, has received a three-year, $600,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop simulation technology that can be used to prevent surgical errors.

With magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and a 3-D printer, Sutkin plans to create a high-fidelity pelvic simulator and use motion analysis to identify surgical errors involved in Midurethral Sling surgery.

Sutkin, professor of surgery, serves as associate dean for women’s health and is Victor and Caroline Shutte Endowed Chair in Women’s Health at the School of Medicine. He chose this particular surgery for his research because it is common in older women and includes a high-risk step. During the procedure, the surgeon must blindly guide a sharp, pointed steel trocar past vital structures, including the bladder, bowel, and major blood vessels.

Performed to improve quality of life, the procedure also has the potential for catastrophic outcomes.

The project will use MRI to create a virtual model of a human pelvis of a patient with reproducible stress urinary incontinence. From that, a 3-D model will be printed, assembled and tested for fidelity to human tissue.

A group of five seasoned surgeon who are experts in Midurethral Surgery and five surgeons who are novices in the procedure will perform the surgery on the model. Motion analysis will collect kinematic data of shoulder, elbow, and wrist motions. The information will be combined into a 3-D model to analyze movements that lead to the most common errors: perforation of the bladder or bowel, and injury to the external iliac veins.

Sutkin’s groundbreaking research has the potential to have a major impact on the prevention of surgical errors by minimizing patient distress and health care costs. Once successful, Sutkin said he plans to incorporate the technology into the School of Medicine’s surgical residency program and apply the approach to reducing errors in other surgeries.

Med school recognized for excellence in diversity, inclusion

The School of Medicine has been recognized by a national publication with a Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity award for its efforts in diversity.

The University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine has received a 2018 Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education.

The School of Medicine, renowned for its innovative six-year BA/MD program, is the only university program in Missouri and one of 10 medical schools in the country to be recognized. The award program is competitive each year; on average, 175 schools compete for the HEED honor annually.

“Our school is honored to receive the HEED Award,” said Mary Anne Jackson, interim dean. “Diversity and inclusion is top of mind in educating future physicians and health professionals because ultimately it means delivering the best patient care.”

As a recipient of the Health Professions HEED Award — a national honor recognizing U.S. medical, dental, pharmacy, osteopathic, nursing and allied health schools that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion — UMKC School of Medicine will be featured, along with 34 other recipients, in the December 2018 issue of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.

“We want people to see the UMKC School of Medicine as a place of best practices nationally and globally, and the HEED Award signifies one way we demonstrate our success,” said Nathan Thomas, associate dean of diversity and inclusion at the UMKC School of Medicine. “Our aim is to continue to attract outstanding diverse faculty, staff, residents and students to our university.”

INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine selected the UMKC School of Medicine for several reasons:

  • Its decades-long successful high-school Summer Scholars and Saturday Academy pipeline programs
  • Students in Medicine, Academia, Research and Training (SMART) retention and graduation mentoring program
  • “Expect Respect” committee to address mistreatment issues and promote healthy work and learning environments

The School of Medicine recently received a $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources to expand and enhance its pipeline and mentoring programs across the schools of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacy.

In 2016, the UMKC School of Dentistry was one of three U.S. dental schools that won a HEED Award.

“The Health Professions HEED Award process consists of a comprehensive and rigorous application that includes questions relating to the recruitment and retention of students and employees — and best practices for both; continued leadership support for diversity; and other aspects of campus diversity and inclusion,” said Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.  “We take a detailed approach to reviewing each application in deciding who will be named a Health Professions HEED Award recipient. Our standards are high, and we look for schools where diversity and inclusion are woven into the work being accomplished every day across their campus.”

School of Medicine celebrates faculty, student achievements

The School of Medicine recognized 36 faculty members who recently received promotions and tenure and presented six special awards for faculty and student achievements during a reception on Sept. 28 at Diastole.

This year’s list included 12 faculty promotions to the rank of professor and 24 to the rank of associate professor. Visit the School of Medicine web site for the complete list of faculty promotions.

Special Award Recognitions

Louise E Arnold Excellence in Medical Education Research Award
George Thompson, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry, received the third-annual award that recognizes someone who has contributed to innovation and scholarship in medical education.

Thompson says his goal in medical education is to support students in fully integrating humanism, good communication, and professionalism into their practice of competent biological medicine. He has served as course director for the School of Medicine’s courses on fundamentals of medical practice and CUES to medical communication. A nomination letter recognized him for nurturing medical professionalism in his students.


Betty M. Drees, M.D., Awards for Excelling in Mentoring
The fifth-annual awards were presented to faculty members for their excellence in mentoring, guiding, coaching and sponsoring students, trainees, staff and peer faculty.

Prakash Chandra, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry, received the award presented each year to an assistant or associate professor. Chandra joined the School of Medicine faculty in 2013. In letters supporting his nomination, Chandra’s trainees wrote, “I cannot remember a single time where Dr. Chandra was not there for us. No matter how busy he is, he always put his mentees ahead. He is a great listener and eager to teach. In addition to being a guide, Dr. Chandra has pushed me to achieve more than I could imagine.”


Paul Cuddy, Pharm.D., vice dean of the School of Medicine, received the Lifetime Achieve in Mentoring Award that is given to a full professor. Letters of nomination noted Cuddy’s 37 years of service to the School of Medicine where he has also served as senior associate dean for academic affair and associate dean for the curriculum among many other roles. One wrote, “Paul is a careful listener, gives constructive feedback and criticism in a manner that leaves a feeling that something was accomplished. He is the soul of the SOM.”


Christopher Papasian Excellence in Teaching Award
Theodore Cole, Ph.D, professor of biomedical sciences, received the second-annual award recognizing a faculty member who excels in medical student education through innovative contributors to the educational mission. Cole has served a member of the School of Medicine’s biomedical sciences faculty since 1999. His students commended his encouragement and support in their nomination letters for the award. “Never a more respectful or gracious man, and with such a calming, ‘it’s not so complicated’ voice, he teaches.”


Excellence in Diversity and Health Equity in Medicine Awards
These awards recognize an individual or organization that has demonstrated sustained and impactful contribution to diversity, inclusion and cultural competency or health equity. The award is given to a student or student organization, and to faculty, staff, resident and/or organization/department.

Taylor Carter, a sixth-year medical student received the student award for her leadership and service with many school and national organizations. A member of Student National Medical Association, a national organization representing underrepresented minority medical students, since 2013, she currently serves as chair of the national academic affairs committee.

Carter has also served as a School of Medicine student representative to the diversity council as well as a student representative to the Children’s Mercy Diversity General Medical Education Sub-Committee. She works with School of Medicine partners on cultural competency curriculum reform to improve the student training in areas such as social determinants of health, personal biases and treating individuals from different backgrounds.

Two groups, the UMKC Student National Medical Association (SNMA) and the Children’s Mercy Hospital Faculty and Trainee Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (FTEDI) Committee, received diversity awards for organizations.

In the past year, the school’s SNMA chapter currently partnered with the Linwood YMCA to provide members who assist with its events, including the Launchpad after-school program, tutoring and mentoring middle and high school students. The chapter has also initiated new programming including a cultural competency workshop and a campus Living Culture event to celebrate diversity. For the past nine years, the organization has conducted a Black History Month Celebration that allows students to display their talents, while educating the audience about health issues that predominately affect the African American and Hispanic population.

The Children’s Mercy FTEDI Committee began as a grassroots effort led by physicians Bridgette Jones, Tamorah Lewis and Jaszianne Tolbert to improve diversity among the pediatrics residency class. The group has since implemented initiatives producing active national recruitment outreach to underrepresented minority trainees and faculty candidates, bias training for hospital leadership, a visiting professorship by national leaders and an elective for minority medical students.

Research office announces winners from 2018 Student Research Summit

Chizitam Ibezim, right, won the School of Medicine’s first prize for his poster presentation at the 2018 UMKC Heath Sciences Student Research Summit.

Fourth-year medical student Chizitam Ibezim won first prize for his poster presentation at the annual UMKC Health Sciences Student Research Summit on April 18 at the Student Union.

Ibezim was among the 50 UMKC School of Medicine students who participated in this year’s summit. They presented 45 of the event’s 87 posters. Students from the health sciences schools of dentistry, nursing and health studies, and pharmacy, as well as the School of Biological Sciences, also presented posters.

The School of Medicine’s Office of Research Administration presented three awards for student presentations and one top prize for graduate student presentations.

Geetha Raghuveer, M.D., served as Ibezim’s faculty mentor on his first-place research project and poster, “Long Term outcomes of Mechanical Mitral Valve Replacement in Children.”

Firas Al Badarin, M.D., M.S.C.R., won the first prize for his graduate student presentation, “Utilization of Radiation-Saving Practices with Myocardial Perfusion Imaging: Temporal.” John Spertus, M.D., was his faculty mentor.

Second prize for a student presentation was awarded to Kelly Kapp, sixth-year student, for “Cardiac Valve Replacement Associated with Higher Values of Glycocalyx Production in Viridan Streptococcal Endocarditis.” She was mentored by Lawrence Dall, M.D.

Mahnoor Malik, a second-year student mentored by Alexey S. Ladokhin, M.D., won the third price for “Purification and Crystallization of Diphtheria Toxin for X-Ray Analysis.”

School of Medicine faculty members served as judges at the event. They included: Darla McCarthy, Ph.D., Jeffrey Price, Ph.D., Maria Cole, Ph.D., Kim Smolderen, Ph.D., R. Scott Duncan, Ph.D., Sean Riordan, Ph.D., Mian Urfy, M.D., Lakshmi Venkitachalam, Ph.D., Nilofer Qureshi, Ph.D., Felix Okah, M.D., Peter Koulen, Ph.D., Bridgette Jones, M.D., Karl Kador, Ph.D., Dan Heruth, Ph.D., Shui Ye, Ph.D., and Gary Sutkin, M.D., M.B.A.

The research office also thanked Tim Hickman, M.D., M.P.H., for conducting student presentation practice sessions. John Foxworth, Pharm.D., was also acknowledged for reviewing posters with students to prepare for the event.

All of the student poster presentations maybe viewed on the student research website at https://med.umkc.edu/student-research/hssrs/

 

 

KC Medical Society honors former School of Medicine docent

Richard Hellman, M.D.

The Kansas City Medical Society recognized Richard Hellman, M.D., F.A.C.P., F.A.C.E., a former School of Medicine docent and clinical professor of medicine, with its 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award. It is the organization’s highest honor.

Hellman served as a docent for nine years before stepping down in 1981 to design and direct Kansas City’s first comprehensive program for adult diabetes care. The practice now includes a 21-member multidisciplinary team, emphasizing a patient-centered integrative approach linking education and medical care.

Hellman served on the board and as president of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, which in 2016 presented him with its Outstanding Clinical Endocrinologist Award. He also has been active with the American Medical Association-convened Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement.

Founding editor of the AACE patient safety exchange web site, Hellman has also served as section editor for Internal Medicine World Report and a reviewer for many other journals.

He served as president of the Kansas City Medical Society in 2000 and in 2015 received the organization’s Innovation Award for his accomplishments.

Joshua M.V. Mammen, 2017 society president, said Hellman had helped to advance medical knowledge through his publications and service to national and international organizations.

“Dr. Hellman has been a leader and innovator in the practice of diabetes care and also in the areas of patient safety and performance measurement, both locally and internationally,” Mammen said.

The medical society recognized Gary Pettett, M.D., professor emeritus and a past associate dean for the School of Medicine with the same award. He received the organization’s 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Kansas City Medical Society represents medical and osteopathic physicians throughout the greater Kansas City area.