Blaine White, MD, has been honored with the Hal Jayne Academic Excellence Award from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. The award recognizes Dr. White for outstanding teaching contributions and scholarly accomplishments in the field of brain resuscitation and cerebral reperfusion injury. The honor was presented at the society's annual meeting in St. Louis.

"He is the personification of the 'triple threat' of teaching, research and service," said colleague Dr. Gary Krause. "Those of us who have had the distinct privilege of working with Blaine know him as a kind and generous person who places the highest priority on the welfare of those around him. Although well known for his storytelling, he nonetheless has set the bar high for the rest of us to better the care of patients and enrich society."

Throughout his career, Dr. White has been at the forefront of basic science research related to post-ischemic reperfusion injuries in the brain. His research is critically important in emergency medicine since only 3 percent of the 70,000 patients who are resuscitated from cardiac arrest each year regain full cognitive capabilities.

Except for a four-year stint at Michigan State University, Dr. White has spent his entire career at the Wayne State University School of Medicine. He earned a medical degree from WSU in 1972, completed training, was appointed to the faculty in 1976, and now serves as professor of emergency medicine and physiology. As such, he directs the emergency medicine research fellowship program, has been an advisor for many successful doctoral students, and continues to attract substantial research funding for his important work.

Dr. White was a practicing emergency physician from 1974 to 1995. He spent 17 years on the emergency department staff of Detroit Receiving Hospital, treating critically ill and injured patients and providing emergency care. He has published more than 70 papers, 9 reviews and 17 book chapters; has served as principal investigator on 11 grants; and has attracted nearly $6 million in research funds. In addition to a long list of research awards and honors, Dr. White was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences last year.

The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine's mission is to foster emergency medicine's academic environment in research, education, and health policy through forums, publications, inter-organizational collaboration, policy development, and consultation services for teachers, researchers, and students.

With more than 1,000 medical students, WSU is among the nation's largest medical schools. Together with the WSU Physician Group, a practice organization consisting of 750 clinical faculty members, the school is a leader in patient care and medical research in a number of areas, including cancer, genetics, women's and children's health and the neurosciences.