Wake Forest Baptist August Awards and Recognitions

September 2, 2014

Wake Forest Baptist Recognized by U.S. Health and Human Services

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has identified Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center as being among the best hospitals in the nation for its organ, eye and tissue donation and registration efforts between June 2013 and May 2014.

The Donation Transplant Council at Wake Forest Baptist worked closely with Carolina Donor Services, a regional organ-procurement organization, and Donate Life North Carolina, a statewide group of organizations that promotes eye, organ and tissue donation, to educate and register new donors.

Wake Forest Baptist is one of 10 hospitals in North Carolina to receive this recognition from HHS.

Wake Forest Baptist Assistant Professor Receives American Heart Association Grant

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Aug. 31, 2014 – Matthew Corriere, M.D., assistant professor of vascular and endovascular surgery at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, has received the Mid-Atlantic Affiliate Mentored Clinical and Population Research Award from the American Heart Association (AHA).

The $154,000, two-year grant supports Corriere’s research on using patient preferences to guide treatment of critical limb ischemia, a severe obstruction of the arteries which reduces blood flow to the feet and legs.

The AHA award program seeks to encourage early career investigators to engage in introductory and pilot clinical studies that will guide strategies for reducing cardiovascular disease and stroke. It also aims to foster new research in clinical and translational science and encourage community- and population-based activities.

Wake Forest Baptist Chair Elected Director of National Board

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Aug. 31, 2014 – Allison Brashear, M.D., chair of neurology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, has been named a director of neurology of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN), the board-certifying body for both medical specialties. Her four-year appointment begins Jan. 1, 2015.

One of eight directors of neurology, Brashear was selected because of her record as a teacher, clinician, researcher and academic administrator. In the past, she served as an ABPN oral examiner, and she is currently a member of the ABPN Faculty Fellowship Selection Committee.

ABPN is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to serving the public interest and professions of psychiatry and neurology.

Wake Forest Baptist Professor Elected President of International Society

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Aug. 31, 2014 – Carlos Ferrario, M.D., professor of general surgery at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, has been elected president of the Inter-American Society of Hypertension (IASH).

As president, Ferrario will work with other like-minded organizations to achieve the 2013 United Nations mandate to reduce high blood pressure and related cardiovascular complications across the Caribbean basin and American continent by 20 percent by the year 2020.

IASH is a nonprofit organization devoted to the understanding, prevention and control of hypertension and vascular diseases.

Wake Forest Baptist Student Receives National Scholarship Award

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Aug. 31, 2014 – Tatiana Thema, a fourth-year medical student at Wake Forest School of Medicine, part of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, has been selected by the American Medical Association Foundation as a recipient of the 2014 Physicians of Tomorrow Scholarship Award.

Thema is one of 21 students across the nation to receive the $10,000 award this year. Recipients are chosen based on academic achievement and financial need.

The AMA Foundation is dedicated to advancing public health and medical scholarship through philanthropic support of physician-directed initiatives. Created in 2004, the Physicians of Tomorrow Awards provide financial assistance to medical students facing spiraling medical school costs.

Breast Cancer Advocates Evaluate Research Applications for Defense Department

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Aug. 31, 2014 – Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center breast cancer advocates Tina Evans, R.N., and Annette Pashayan, M.D., evaluated research applications submitted to the Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) sponsored by the Department of Defense.

As consumer reviewers, they represented breast cancer survivors, patients, family members and persons at risk for the disease as they helped determine how the $120 million appropriated by Congress for fiscal year 2014 will be spent on breast cancer research.

The BCRP supports high-risk, high-gain research while encouraging out-of-the-box thinking.

Media Relations

Erin Harris: news@wakehealth.edu, 336-713-4587

Shannon Putnam: news@wakehealth.edu, 336-713-4587