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Research News


HSR&D Awardees at SGIM Annual Meeting

April 13, 2018


Three VA HSR&D investigators received prestigious awards at the 2018 SGIM Annual Meeting was held in Denver, CO, April 11-April 14, 2018. The Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) is a national medical society of 3,000 physicians who are the primary internal medicine faculty of every medical school and major teaching hospital in the United States. In addition to teaching medical students, residents, and fellows how to care for adult patients, SGIM members also conduct research to improve primary care, preventative measures, and health treatment services.

Kurt Kroenke, MD received SGIM’s 2018 Robert J. Glaser Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to research, education, leadership and mentoring, and is presented at the SGIM Annual Meeting as a feature of a plenary session. A core investigator with HSR&D’s Center for Health Information and Communication (CHIC), Dr. Kroenke’s main research interests are physical and psychological symptoms, including pain, depression, anxiety and somatization. He has developed multiple patient-reported outcome measures that have been translated into more than 80 languages, including the PHQ-9 depression scale, GAD-7 anxiety scale, PHQ-15 somatization scale, PEG pain scale, and the P4 suicidality screener.

Mitesh S. Patel, MD, MBA, MS, received SGIM’s Outstanding Junior Investigator of the Year award, which recognizes an SGIM junior investigator whose early career achievements and overall bodies of work have had a national impact on generalist research. Dr. Patel is part of HSR&D’s Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP), and also is an HSR&D Career Development Awardee. Dr. Patel’s research focuses on studying innovative ways to change health behaviors and improve patient outcomes by combining digital health approaches, which collect data using wireless and wearable devices, with engagement strategies that leverage insights from behavioral economics. He has led more than 10 clinical trials that evaluated financial and social incentive designs, and his articles have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Walid F. Gellad, MD, MPH, received the ACLGIM (Association of Chiefs and Leaders of General Internal Medicine) Leadership Award, which recognizes skills in leadership in various areas of academic medicine, including clinical, educational, research, or administrative efforts. Leaders are responsible for overseeing other individuals, teams, or entire organizations engaged in one or more of these areas. Also part of CHERP, and a former HSR&D Career Development Awardee, Dr. Gellad's research targets physician prescribing practices and policy issues that affect access and adherence to medication for patients. His work spans clinical areas from diabetes to hepatitis C to prescription drug and substance abuse.


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