43 Honored for Humanism, Exemplary Professionalism, Care

All honorees — encompassing medical trainees and physician-teachers at various stages of their careers — exemplify excellence, compassion and dedication to the medical profession.

The society is a program of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that strives to elevate the values of humanism and professionalism in medicine worldwide.

UB’s more than 800 residents and fellows may nominate their peers for induction into a branch of the UB chapter — one of only 10 graduate medical education sections affiliated with the society.

Each inductee is eligible to receive a small grant for a creative project to infuse and support humanism in training programs and hospitals. 

“You are exemplars and role models for your peers, medical students, attendings and staff ... the best of the best,” wrote branch co-advisers Colleen Nugent, MD ’09, a fellow in the pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition program, and Daniel W. Sheehan, MD, PhD, clinical associate professor of pediatrics, in a joint letter to inductees.

They led the induction of the following residents and fellows:

• Ali Abbas, MD (gastroenterology)
• Ghasan S. Ahmad, MBBS (neurology)
• Jeffrey W. Carter, MD (surgery)
• Susan M. Daoust, MD (orthopaedics)
• Michael R. Dlugosz, MD (family medicine)
• Caitlyn V. Dragon, MD (surgery)
• John Faria, MD (otolaryngology)
• Poonamdeep K. Gill, MD (psychiatry)
• Abdallah D. Kamouh, MD (cardiology)
• Christina A. Kramer, MD (obstetrics/gynecology)
• Ashley D. Kremer, DO (family medicine)
• Lindsay J. Lipinski, MD (neurosurgery)
• Jordann E. Loehr, MD, MPH (obstetrics/gynecology)
• Silpa Mandava, MBBS (internal medicine)
• Bilal Mustafa, MBBS (pulmonary/critical care)
• Lydia S. Park, DO (medicine/pediatrics)
• Abdul J. Samdani, MBBS (internal medicine)
• Hakeem J. Shakir, MD (neurosurgery)
• David E. Sliwoski, MD (anesthesiology)
• Laura M. Wiltsie, DO (pediatrics)
• Jennifer A. Yerke, MD (family medicine)

Chapter adviser David A. Milling, MD ’93, senior associate dean for student and academic affairs, led the induction of the following third-year medical students, who make up less than 13 percent of the Class of 2015:

Eugene Mindell, MD, professor emeritus and former chair of orthopaedics, led the induction of the following faculty members, all UB medical school alumni:

• Lawrence B. Bone, MD ’73, professor emeritus and former chair of orthopaedics, and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve
  
• Carla A. Frederick, MD ’05, clinical assistant professor of medicine, who specializes in pulmonary and critical care
  
• Matthew Phillips, MD ’91, clinical assistant professor of orthopaedics and faculty speaker at the induction ceremony
  

Bone also was recognized as the 2013 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award recipient. Last August, Bone’s wife accepted the award on his behalf while Bone served as a commander in the U.S. Army medical corps in Afghanistan.

Fourth-year medical student Julie Garchow, a 2013 inductee, received the Dr. Howard R. Goldstein ’74 Memorial Humanitarian Scholarship.

Garchow recently volunteered at a hospital in rural Uganda. She will pursue her residency in family medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

The award is given to a third- or fourth-year medical student each year. It commemorates Goldstein’s humanitarian spirit and contributions to medicine.

The 2014 induction ceremony took place March 22 at the Saturn Club in Buffalo.

Other participants included Michael E. Cain, MD, vice president for health sciences and dean, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, who offered congratulatory remarks.

Leonard A. Katz, MD, the professor emeritus of medicine who founded the UB chapter in 2005, opened the ceremony and gave a chapter update, along with Garchow and her classmate Michael Blanco, also a 2013 inductee.

The chapter is named in memory of Richard T. Sarkin, MD, EdM ’98, a former associate professor of clinical pediatrics known for his teaching expertise and passion.