Excellence in Advocacy, Outstanding Volunteer Join List of Honors
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE
There are few honors more humbling than being recognized by your peers for making a difference in your industry and your community. We are proud each year to recognize physicians who stand out in their service to patients, to health care in our region, and who continue to represent how SSVMS has supported the practice of medicine in our area since we were founded in 1868.
After extensive consideration by our staff, the Scholarship and Awards Committee, and SSVMS Board of Directors, we are making some changes to how recipients of our awards are chosen and introducing two new awards to recognize those who have shown leadership in advocacy and as volunteers who personify the spirit of SSVMS.
One important change is that nominations will now be open all year. We want to hear from you about who you think should be recognized at our annual Honors Medicine event and why that person is a model for physicians in our community.
The Golden Stethoscope Award, our highest honor, will continue to be awarded annually with candidates evaluated primarily for their devotion to patient care and the medical needs of our community. The Medical Honor Award will be renamed the Community Impact Award and given to an SSVMS member whose high achievement has translated into a contribution of great significance to the community. The new name more accurately reflects the purpose of the award, which is to recognize an impact either on the community as a whole or on a sector of the community that has been underserved or is an at-risk population. You may remember that the 2022 Medical Honor Award recipient was given to Ronald G. Chambers, MD, who led groundbreaking work to address the health needs of women who were the victims of human trafficking.
We are proud to introduce two new awards. The first, the Excellence in Advocacy Award, will recognize notable leadership in the advancement of health care policy that directly benefits physicians and patients. We have physicians who, through both SSVMS and CMA, have advocated successfully for important policies and legislation at the local, state and national level. With major legislative victories last year that were the direct result of long hours and crucial work performed by our physician advocates, we felt it was time to recognize those efforts with this new award.
The second addition is the Outstanding Medical Society Volunteer Award, which will acknowledge physicians who advance the mission and vision of SSVMS through significant contributions to our Society or through their participation in charitable programs such as SPIRIT, Joy of Medicine, Future of Medicine, the Museum of Medical History, and more. We are constantly awed by how much time and effort local physicians, including those who have retired from active practice, continue to support SSVMS and the community at large through their volunteer efforts. We look forward to bringing those efforts, which are normally performed with little fanfare or public appreciation, to the greater attention of our members.
We are making one other significant change: while the Golden Stethoscope Award will remain the center of our Honors Medicine presentation each year, the Community Impact Award, Excellence in Advocacy Award, and Outstanding Medical Society Volunteer Award will each be given at the discretion of the SSVMS Board of Directors only if a qualified candidate is identified. This will ensure that these honors will truly represent the most dedicated physicians who have made the greatest impact on our profession and our community.
On behalf of our board, I want to encourage you to nominate those members who you feel stand out as role models, deserve recognition for their untiring efforts on behalf of the Society or the practice of medicine in our region, or are making health care more accessible for patients who need it most. The nomination form is online or available via request at SSVMS. We look forward to hearing who you think is deserving of these awards and their compelling stories.
