Awards and Honors: June 2016

Scott Rodriguez Receives 2016 Barbour Award

The 2016 Allen B. Barbour Award for Excellence in Internal Medicine has been awarded to Scott Rodriguez, MD. Each year the Barbour Award recognizes a graduating medical student who exemplifies the qualities modeled and taught by Dr. Allen Barbour: "commitment to continuous self-improvement, meticulous care of patients and concern for the whole person."

Barbour, who died in 1993, was well known for his devotion to patient advocacy and patient-centered, humanistic care. He was also a dedicated and skilled teacher. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1963 and became professor of medicine in 1974. As a teacher, he had a “profound and lasting effect on his many students,” says Michael Jacobs, MD, who presented the award at a recent Grand Rounds. Barbour was a 4-time recipient of the Arthur Bloomfield Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching and a 2-time recipient of the Kaiser Award for Clinical Teaching.

Jacobs describes Barbour’s work in detail: “Dr. Barbour was an expert clinician, exceptionally adept at unraveling the intricate connections between the unique psychosocial and personal life of patients and their physical symptoms. And he adored teaching Stanford medical students, residents and even many of his faculty colleagues how to do this. In his teaching, Dr. Barbour never forgot that the defining quality of human beings is not their biochemistry, but their individuality.”

Allison Kurian Promoted to Associate Professor

Allison Kurian, MD, was recently promoted to associate professor of medicine and of health research and policy. Kurian's resarch forcues on identifying women with an elevated risk of developing gynecologic or bereast cancers, and on developing strategies for early cancer detection and prenvetion. She also directs the Stanford Women's Cancer Genetics Clinic.

Judith Shizuru Promoted to Professor

Judith Shizuru, MD, PhD, was recently promoted to professor of medicine. She is interested in the cellular and molecular basis of bone marrow cell engraftment, and the way in which these grafts modify immune response.  

Robert Negrin Named Editor-in-Chief of Blood Advances

Robert Negrin, MD, was named the founding editor-in-chief of a new open-access journal, Blood Advances. It will complement and expand on topics addressed in Blood, the American Society of Hematology’s flagship publication.

“It is an honor to oversee the launch of Blood Advances, the first expansion of the trusted brand of Blood, which continues to be the premier journal in hematology,” said Negrin in an official press release. “Blood Advances will allow ASH to more completely address the needs of our members by disseminating scholarly information on an expanded array of topics that are not comprehensively served by any other journal. Our innovative online platform will serve as an incubator to test novel methods of communication and interaction with our community.”