The Michigan chapter of the American College of Physicians honored Wayne State University School of Medicine Professor Patricia Brown, M.D., FACP, FIDSA, with its Great Internist of Michigan Award at a ceremony held virtually Oct. 15 during the organization’s annual scientific meeting. 

The award recognizes internists whose contributions to health care and internal medicine in Michigan have been noteworthy. Criteria for the award are outstanding clinical abilities and performance, along with service to the discipline, research and/or education.

Dr. Brown is a professor in the WSU Division of Infectious Diseases within the Department of Internal Medicine. She also is associate chief of Medicine at the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit.

“I was surprised, deeply honored and humbled to receive this recognition from our Michigan ACP chapter. ACP has been a strong and committed voice for advocacy on behalf of internists, residents, students and our patients, and we are very fortunate to have a strong state chapter here in Michigan,” Dr. Brown said.

She completed her Internal Medicine residency and infectious diseases fellowship training at WSU School of Medicine/Detroit Medical Center, where she joined the faculty of the Department of Medicine in 1992. She previously served as chief of Medicine at Detroit Receiving Hospital and then as the corporate vice president of Quality and Patient Safety for the DMC.

Despite her significant administrative role, she continues to round on the inpatient infectious diseases consult service at the Detroit VAMC and maintains her half-day outpatient infectious diseases practice at Wayne Health, which she has had since her fellowship.

She has won numerous awards for her clinical teaching at WSU, and was elected to its Gold Humanism Honor Society in 2014. She received the American College of Physicians, Michigan Chapter, Laureate Award in 2017 and the Clinical Teacher Award from the Michigan Infectious Disease Society in 2019.

Before moving into administrative roles, she was involved in clinical research in the area of urinary tract infections, particularly pyelonephritis, in which she maintains clinical interest and expertise.

Since 2012, she has served on the writing committee for the Infectious Disease section of the Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment Program for the ACP and as section editor for the three most recent editions. Dr. Brown is a master in the ACP and a fellow in the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

The ACP is the largest medical-specialty society in the world, with 161,000 members around the globe.