The Wayne State University School of Medicine Alumni Association celebrated and honored the contributions of the man who first led the predecessor of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Center and three distinguished alumni during a dinner capping the annual Medical Alumni Reunion Day.
The four were recognized at a reunion dinner at the Troy Marriott following a day of continuing medical education sessions at the School of Medicine on May 14. The annual event allowed members of graduating classes from across the country to meet and catch up with classmates, as well as learn about the progress of the school from Dean Valerie M. Parisi, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A.
The awards were presented by Dean Parisi and Gino Salciccioli, M.D., (Class of 1961), president-elect of the School of Medicine Alumni Association.
The Lawrence M. Weiner Award, which honors the outstanding contributions of non-alumni to the School of Medicine through the exceptional performance of their teaching, research or administrative duties, was presented posthumously to Michael Brennan M.D. of Grosse Pointe Shores. Dr. Brennan died Sept. 22, 2010. Dr. Timothy Brennan, M.D., his son and a 1976 graduate of the School of Medicine, accepted the award on behalf of the family.
Dr. Brennan attended medical school at Loyola University in Chicago. He volunteered and served in World War II as well as in the Korean conflict. During the Korean conflict he served as base hospital commander at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. An oncologist, Dr. Brennan was department chair of Hematology and Oncology in the early 1960s at Henry Ford Hospital. In the early 1960s he headed the Michigan Cancer Foundation, the predecessor of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Center. He served on the School of Medicine faculty for decades and maintained an office at Karmanos until only a few years ago. He published prolifically, mostly in the area of breast cancer research, and was a deeply respected teacher and mentor to hundreds of oncologists. He worked tirelessly to improve oncologic services and obtain grants for research, and was instrumental in bringing hospice services to Michigan.
State Sen. Roger Kahn, M.D.; Suzanne White, M.D., chair of the WSU Department of Emergency Medicine; and Michael Sandler, M.D., received the Distinguished Alumni Award, which is presented annually to an alumni member who has made outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes, whose contribution to the health field in the broader sense is outstanding and for service to the School of Medicine.
Dr. Khan, a cardiologist, graduated from the WSU School of Medicine in 1974. After medical school and a residency at Beaumont Hospital in Detroit, he returned to Saginaw to practice medicine. At that time, Saginaw had one part-time cardiac laboratory and no cardiac surgery. He fought for and brought to the region the balloon pump, modern pacemakers and outreach clinics. He founded the Heart Group and worked to expand the cardiac lab and initiate Saginaw's cardiac surgery program. He also successfully fought to further expand cardiac services to meet people's needs by starting a second program at Covenant (then St. Luke's) Hospital. Saginaw is now recognized as one of the best cardiac centers in the Midwest.
Kahn served as president of the Saginaw County Medical Society and chaired its ethics-mediation committee. In 2002, he received the Heart of Gold Award from the American Heart Association. He has served as a board member of Jane's Street Clinic and donated time to Saginaw's free medical clinic.
Dr. White, a 1988 School of Medicine graduate, became the first medical toxicology fellow at Wayne State University and upon graduation was the first fellowship-trained medical toxicologist in Michigan. In 2004, she completed the Hedwig van Meringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine Fellowship Program at Drexel University, and in 2010 took her master's of business administration degree from the University of Tennessee.
She became the medical director of the Children's Hospital of Michigan Regional Poison Control Center in 1994. Under her leadership, the center has grown to one of the largest in the United States, providing free emergency treatment advice to all callers across Michigan. Dr. White has been tireless in her efforts to fund the center and has been awarded more than $17 million in federal, state and local grants that have funded uninterrupted service.
Early in her career, Dr. White envisioned a center of excellence for medical toxicology and poison control education when she launched a one-month rotation for residents and medical students at the poison center. The rotation has grown to 120 residents and students per year and routinely hosts residents from 18 residency programs and three universities. In 2000, she received the American College of Emergency Physicians National Teaching Award.
Recognized nationally as an expert in emergency preparedness, particularly in relation to chemical, biological and radiological disaster response and surveillance, Dr. White provided national leadership in developing the first competencies for emergency providers in the area of chemical, nuclear and biological emergencies. She is a founding member of the WSU Multi-Agency and Jurisdictional Organizational Response Research Team, which studies communication coordination during disasters. The team has received more than $1 million in funding from the National Science Foundation. Dr. White was one of a handful of individuals to be awarded a $300,000 Health Resources and Services Administration grant to develop and integrate emergency preparedness training into the School of Medicine curriculum. That curriculum was developed by a multidisciplinary team to allow for its adoption by the WSU schools of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Nursing and Social Work.
In 2005, Dr. White became the first woman to reach the rank of professor of Emergency Medicine at Wayne State University. She was one of the first clinician-educators to serve as a member-at-large on the Faculty Senate Executive Committee. She has served as a member of numerous Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center Graduate Medical Education Committees. She is a member of the executive committee for the Wayne State University Physicians Group. She co-chairs the Wayne State University Pandemic Preparedness Taskforce and has put into place essential crisis communication and continuity of operation plans that bring the university to an impressive level of preparedness for future outbreaks and other public health emergencies.
Dr. White became the Munuswamy Dayanandan Professor and Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine in 2006, and was named the emergency physician-in-chief for the Detroit Medical Center. On January 1, she was named chief medical officer and executive vice president of the DMC.
Dr. Sandler, a 1971 graduate of the School of Medicine, returned to Detroit after a residency in diagnostic radiology at the University of Michigan. He joined the faculty of the Department of Diagnostic Radiology of Henry Ford Hospital, where teaching residents, high quality patient care and research appealed to him. He continues there and has been involved in all aspects of the department. He served on the Education/Resident Selection Committee for 15 years and was voted Teacher of the Year. He initiated a fellowship in Cross Sectional Imaging in 1984. During his 22 years as its director, more than 80 fellows completed the program.
The Henry Ford Medical Group recently presented him with a Special Recognition Award and a Distinguished Alumni Award. One of the earliest practitioners of ultrasound in Michigan, he served as president of the American Society of Clinic Radiologists and the Michigan Radiological Society. He has been awarded fellowships in the American College of Radiology, the Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound and the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.
Dr. Sandler served as president and chair of the Board of Directors of the Wayne County Medical Society and as chair of the Board of Directors of the Michigan State Medical Society for three years. He was president in 2008. He has been a member of the Michigan delegation to the American Medical Association since 1998 and is a member of the Certificate of Need Commission, the Board of Directors of the Greater Detroit Area Health Council and Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch. He has regularly attended meetings of the Wayne State School of Medicine Alumni Association Board since 1998, and served as president in 2002-2003. He chaired the Telefund Committee for two years and has been a member of numerous other committees.
The awards presentation ended a day-long agenda of continuing medical education sessions and the Dr. Morris S. Brent Lectureship Series at the School of Medicine. About 250 alumni and guests attended the events, coming from as far as California and Oregon. George Mogill, M.D., of the Class of 1942, was the earliest graduate who attended. Special recognition went to the classes of 1951, 1956, 1961, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006.