Award Recognizes Career Contributions to Research

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Howard Rabinowitz, M.D., the Ellen M. and Dale W. Garber Professor of Family Medicine in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, has been selected as the 2008 recipient of the Curtis Hames Research Award in Family Medicine. Dr. Rabinowitz formally received his award May 3^rd at the 41^st Annual Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) Spring Conference, which was held in Baltimore.

“I am extremely honored to have received the Curtis Hames Award,” said Rabinowitz. “This award is also a reflection on Thomas Jefferson University and my department, without whose support our research would have never taken place. I have also had the support of wonderful mentors, collaborators and colleagues.”

Funded by the Hames Endowment of the Department of Family Medicine of the Medical College of Georgia and presented by the STFM, Family Medicine’s largest academic organization, the Curtis Hames Research Award recipient is selected by a committee representing the three major professional organizations in family medicine: the STFM, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the North American Primary Care Research Group. The winner of the annual award is the individual who, through the course of his or her career, has made outstanding contributions to the development of family medicine research.

Dr. Rabinowitz is nationally and internationally known for his work related to the rural physician workforce – much of which relates to Jefferson’s rural Physician Shortage Area Program (PSAP). His research on increasing the supply and retention of rural physicians has resulted in five publications in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association over the past two decades. He has served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine since its inception in 1986. And, he is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Howard Rabinowitz has probably done more than any researcher in the nation to help us understand how we can increase the supply of family physicians for rural America,” said Dr. Richard Wender, Alumni Professor and Chair, Department of Family and Community Medicine. “He is enormously deserving of the Curtis Hames Research Award and we are incredibly proud of his accomplishment. We are honored to have Howard Rabinowitz as a member of the Department of Family and Community Medicine here at Jefferson.”

In addition to his own research, Dr. Rabinowitz, has also served as a research mentor to a number of medical students and junior faculty at Jefferson, and currently serves as the Director of the Department’s Research Fellowship.