Stephen J. Jay, M.D.

Stephen J. Jay, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Public Health, Indiana University School of Medicine.  In recognition of distinguished and exemplary leadership in the prevention of tobacco use. For outstanding contributions as Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the Indiana University School of Medicine. For  publication of  investigative articles and reports, letters to the editor, chapters in books, books; for radio and television interviews, including appearing on “60 Minutes” in 2009 to speak about smokeless tobacco products. For  communicating  public health to policy makers. For public testimony before non-federal bodies such as state legislative committees and agencies and local government bodies regarding public health issues, such as respiratory health, tuberculosis control, tobacco control, and environmental air pollution. For tireless and persistent efforts to promote the health of citizens in Indiana and nationwide.

Kathryn I. Frank       RN, Phd

Kathryn I. Frank, R.N., Ph.D., I.U. Geriatrics Program Administrator, Indiana University School of Medicine.  For excellence and exemplary leadership in recognizing the need for collaborative opportunities for healthcare providers serving Indiana’s senior citizens.  For initiative in championing the start up of the Indiana Geriatrics Society, incorporated in 2007, with the goal of providing opportunities for members to network, learn, problem solve, and provide optimum geriatric care for Indiana’s older adults.  For bringing together physicians, nurses, social workers, pharmacists, therapists, and other disciplines to collaborate regarding care for senior citizens.  For encouraging IGS members to collaborate with the American Geriatrics Society to explore opportunities to build community relationships.  For spearheading new educational offerings and career development opportunities for physicians, nurses, and social workers at the Indiana University Medical Center.   For dedication and leadership in the development of one of the largest geriatrics programs in the country, and one of only 25 designated John A. Hartford Foundation Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine and Training.

Joe Burrage, Jr., R.N., Ph.D., FAAN

Joe Burrage, Jr., R.N., Ph.D., FAAN, Director, Undergraduate Honors Program; Associate Professor, I.U. School of Nursing; Faculty Appointment, Purdue University Graduate School. For excellence and exemplary leadership in developing a means of assessing the quality and effectiveness of Community-Based AIDS Service Organizations’ buddy programs for people with HIV. For understanding that research outcomes which validate the psychosocial and other supports necessary for patients’ adherence to therapeutic regimens are necessary for continued funding of such programs.  For being the first nurse to examine salivary rapid HIV testing from the perspective of identifying barriers and facilitators to HIV testing and early care entry in the African American population (at highest risk for new infection). For working to build international capacity to decrease HIV infection rates and improve care of those infected with HIV.  For identifying and disseminating  factors that increase occupational exposures, thereby impacting the  spread of HIV in health workers in Kenya. For persistent and continued effort to eliminate barriers to HIV testing, assess the buddy program that helps patients adhere to therapeutic regimens, and securing continued funding for AIDS Service Organizations.

Thomas Inui, M.D., ScM

Connie M. Weaver, Ph.D.

Connie M. Weaver, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor and Head, Department of Foods and Nutrition, Purdue University; Deputy Director of NIH funded Indiana Clinical and Transitional Science Institute; Director of NIH Botanicals Center for Age-Related Diseases. For excellence and exemplary leadership in the area of nutrition research and mineral bioavailability with regard to the role of calcium during the teen years in building strong bones.  For providing insight into factors affecting development of peak bone mass during growth, which determines risk of osteoporosis in women.  For using stable non-radioactive isotope methodology  to study calcium metabolism in teens.  For recognizing that about half of adult bone mass is acquired during adolescence, making that period a critical window of opportunity to build strong bones that resist fracture in childhood and later in life.  For determining the optimal amount of dietary calcium for maximizing skeletal growth during that critical period by race and gender.  For having her findings translated into national public health policies and being used to set recommendations for calcium for North America and populations around the world.  For determining calcium bioavailability from all major sources of calcium in foods and supplements. 

Indiana Latino Institute

 Indiana Latino Institute. For excellence and exemplary leadership in serving the Latino population in Hamilton, Lake, Marion, St. Joseph, and Tippecanoe counties with tobacco intervention programs. For conducting 35 cessation classes in 2009, with 204 smokers ready for cessation interventions.  For educating 6.965 people and  distributing 43,209 pieces of educational materials.  For collecting 1450 smoke free tobacco pledges and making 69 tobacco control presentations to church groups and other community organizations. For making 80 educational/commercial radio announcements.  For presentations on the dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke to 845 Latino pregnant or childbearing age women.  For work in Latino VOICE, directed at informing youth about tactics used by the tobacco industry to entice young people to use tobacco.  For assisting Latino citizens, other minority groups, and the underserved population to access needed services

Johnson County Health Department

Johnson County Health Department.  For excellence and exemplary leadership in protecting the health of the community following a major flood on June 7, 2008 that dumped eight to eleven inches of rain on the county in a four-hour period.  For acting swiftly to rescue records and equipment from the flooded office space.  For locating a temporary building and  physically working to set up the office and be available to the public by 8:00 a.m. on the next business following the flood and from which health department services could be provided for the next six months.  For providing the first tetanus immunization clinic on June 10, with six other clinics  following in various areas of the county.  For collaboration between department staff, the Medical Reserve Corps and volunteers to conduct the clinics.  For personal effort to assure continuity of essential health services to the citizens of Johnson County

Maple City Health Care Center, Goshen

James N. Gingerich, M.D.

Maple City Health Care Center, Goshen, Indiana. For excellence and exemplary leadership in recognizing and addressing the high incidence of low birth rate and premature births in a high risk population.  For hiring bi-lingual staff and using the Centering Pregnancy model to create support groups for both Spanish and English speaking expectant mothers.  For hiring a pregnancy coordinator for home visits and help with breast feeding.  For hiring a social worker who screened for and treated post-partum depression. For offering discounted fees by up to 90%. For offering the “More Than Money” program that gives patients $10 credit for every hour they volunteer for community development organizations.  For 2009 having only one of sixty-two babies of MCHCC patients born prematurely (36 weeks)  with Indiana’s rate at 17.6% for uninsured women.  For having zero low birth rate babies in 2009 compared to 6.6% for Hispanic woman in Indiana.  For providing exceptional education, care, and follow up for high risk birth mothers in an underserved population.

Project Prescription for Hope, Wishard Health Services - Lee Ann Blue, Mona Johnson, Clark Simons, M.D., Diana Creasser, Don Cox, Wendy St. John, R.N., Gerardo Gomez, M.D.

Project Prescription for Hope, Wishard Health Services.  For excellence and exemplary leadership for founding Project Prescription for Hope, an evidence-based violence prevention program, significantly reducing in only one year the rate of recidivism of violence related injury and readmission to Wishard Hospital.  For partnering with Shepherd Community Center to provide opportunities for persons in eleven Indianapolis neighborhoods with the highest levels of homicide and violence-related injury to examine lifestyles, break the cycle of violence and  make life changing and life saving choices.  For encouraging individuals admitted to the IU/Wishard Level I Trauma Center with a gun shot, stabbing wound, or as the result of other assault, to enroll in Project Prescription for Hope before leaving the hospital. For addressing with individuals the areas of physical and mental health, education/training, employment, social and recreational needs, housing and shelter, family and daily living issues and legal needs.

Excellence in Health Science Research

Marc Gerdisch, M.D.

Marc Gerdisch, M.D., Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery; Co-director of the Heart Valve Center, St. Francis Heart Center.  In recognition  of distinguished and exemplary research focused on the use of extra-cellular matrix (ECM) in tissue reconstruction, its possible impact on heart arrhythmia and treatment of congestive heart failure. For performing the first-ever surgeries to repair or remodel interior heart structures, such as valves, using a unique bio-scaffold “patch” known as Extra Cellular Matrix (ECM), a bio-material being used to augment and repair the heart and its valves harnessing the body’s innate ability to repair and repopulate damaged tissues.  For using ECM to reconstitute the pericardium  with retrospective analysis indicating that atrial fibrillation following heart surgery may be lessened. For studying the use of ECM following heart attacks to initiate new heart muscle growth. Laboratory studies in a mouse model have yielded chemical marker and functional evidence that introducing emulsified ECM will result in cell attraction and development. Larger animal studies are under way to establish the mode and extent of this potentially revolutionary process. For Excellence in health science research to discover the uses of extra-cellular matrix (ECM) in repairing the heart, its valves, the pericardium, and tissue injured as a result of heart attacks.

Marc Overhage, M.D., Ph.D., CEO 

Marc Overhage, M.D., Ph.D., CEO, Indiana Health Information Exchange, Director of Medical Informatics and Research Scientist, Regenstrief Institute. In recognition  of distinguished and exemplary research focusing on the use of informational interventions to modify provider behavior in the treatment of patients, including computerized provider order entry, clinical decision support systems and other forms of feedback.  For utilizing captured health information from thousands of sources to create an integrated network of over 13,000 Indiana physicians as well as designing tools to identify which providers are utilizing best care practices in preventive medicine, including cancer screenings, immunizations, well child visits.  For developing clinical information standards, advising the federal government on policy-guiding health information technology and developing sustainable models for providing  health information services.  For his role in directing the Indiana Health Information Exchange program, Quality Health First, to gain national recognition as the most advanced utilization of health information technology for community health care improvements.  For excellence in health science research in developing health information exchange models that will support medical providers in giving the best patient care.