Wishwa Kapoor Wins SGIM's Top Honor

 Wishwa N. Kapoor, MD, MPH, FACP, received the Robert J. Glaser Award—the highest honor presented by the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM)—at this year's SGIM conference. This prestigious award has been given for the past 20 years in recognition of outstanding contributions to research, education, or both in generalism in medicine.

Dr. Kapoor joined the University of Pittsburgh faculty 26 years ago and has made major contributions to education, research, and clinical care on the local, national, and international levels. In 1995, he was appointed Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and was named the first director of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Research on Health Care. In 1999, he established the Clinical Research Training Program. In more recent years, he developed a number of other university-wide programs, including the Clinician Educator Training Program, the Clinical Scientist Training Program, the International Clinical Research Training Program, and the Clinical Research Scholars Program. In 2005, Dr. Kapoor became the first director of the Institute for Clinical Research Education. He also assumed the position of Interim Chair of the Department of Medicine.

As described by Dr. Michael Fine in his letter nominating Dr. Kapoor for the Glaser Award: "During his years as a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Kapoor has established himself as one of the world's leading clinical epidemiologists and health services researchers, initiating a variety of research projects and research training programs central to the practice of general medicine.... Dr. Kapoor's research has defined the standards of care for two common medical problems managed by generalists [i.e., syncope and community-acquired pneumonia]. He has developed a nationally recognized Health Services Research Center, founded an Institute for Clinical Research Education, and shaped a Division of General Internal Medicine that promotes excellence in patient care, teaching, and research. His mentoring and educational programs have trained leaders in clinical epidemiology, health services research, and medical education and have contributed in a substantial fashion to the national foundation of scholarship in general internal medicine. His mentoring and role modeling have also been a local inspiration to the Division and Department and a salient factor in their success. The Glaser Award will appropriately recognize the major impact he has had on advancing research and education in the field of general internal medicine over the past quarter of a century."