SHM’s Awards of Excellence Program honors members who’ve made exceptional contributions to hospital medicine in a variety of categories.

Clinical Leadership for Physicians

Marisha Burden, MD, FACP, SFHM

Dr. Burden

Dr. Burden is the division head of hospital medicine and an associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, Colo. She earned her medical degree from the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine in Norman, Okla., graduating with the honor of Alpha Omega Alpha. She completed her residency at the University of Colorado in the hospitalist training track.

Dr. Burden’s interests include building a thriving workforce and developing clinical staffing models that support the workforce to do their best work. This in turn drives outstanding patient and institutional outcomes. She’s led numerous clinical innovations including building novel clinical service lines and large-scale surge plans for the COVID-19 pandemic. She also devotes considerable time and effort to mentoring, faculty advancement, and educational efforts. Dr. Burden dedicates her time to many diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and is the co-founder and co-chair of SHM’s diversity, equity, and inclusion special interest group (SIG). She uses research methods to develop and understand best practices. She is the co-lead for the Hospital Medicine Reengineering Network’s (HOMERuN) research network workforce planning group, principal investigator on an Agency for Health Care Research and Quality study, “Discharge in the AM: A Randomized Control Trial of Physician Rounding Styles to Improve Hospital Flow”, and she recently received a Total Worker Health pilot grant to study hospitalist work. 

Clinical Leadership for NPs and PAs

Kasey Bowden, MSN, FNP, AGACNP

Dr. Burden

Ms. Bowden is an assistant professor and associate division head in the University of Colorado Hospital division of hospital medicine in Aurora, Colo., where she helps lead strategic planning and clinical operations for a team of more than 100 physicians and advanced practice provider (APP) faculty. Her career focuses on improving the delivery, quality, and experience of health care through the development of innovative care delivery models. Ms. Bowden is a member of the task force for mass critical care, which published a consensus guideline in CHEST on contingency strategies for mass critical care surge response and created the conceptual framework which continues to guide the division of hospital medicine’s COVID-19 response. She is the medical director of the CARE Clinic at the CU Cancer Center, which aims to reduce unplanned acute care utilization through providing advanced urgent care services to oncology patients, a model which has gained national attention and has been replicated at numerous institutions. In addition, Ms. Bowden serves as the senior clinical lead of strategy for the UCHealth office of advanced practice, where she guides the strategic development of advanced practice provider programs. She has been an SHM member since 2012 and served on the board of directors of the Rocky Mountain chapter since 2015. Ms. Bowden has authored numerous publications and speaks nationally on topics of clinical operations, advanced practice provider utilization and advancement, and value-based care delivery models. 

Diversity Equity & Inclusion Leadership Award

Amira del Pino-Jones, MD

Dr. del Pino-Jones

Dr. del Pino-Jones is an associate professor in the department of medicine at the University of Colorado. She is the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion for the division of hospital medicine; the assistant program director for diversity and inclusion in the internal medicine residency program; and one of the assistant deans for student affairs in the school of medicine. Most recently, Dr. del Pino-Jones became the inaugural chair of SHM’s diversity, equity, and inclusion committee. Her dedication to diversifying the health care workforce has been exemplified through her work with college students who are underrepresented in medicine. Specifically, she created and directed several pathway programs that focus on mentorship, advising, coaching, quality improvement, and leadership training for pre-health students. Her article, “Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Hospital Medicine,” published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine, highlights some of the transformational diversity, equity, and inclusion programming and initiatives at the University of Colorado. This work shows how a strong commitment and systematic approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion can change the demographics and culture of our health care workforce, prioritize equity, enrich medical education, sustain research endeavors, and optimize the care we provide for all patients.

Excellence in Humanitarian Services

Ingrid Pinzon, MD, FACP, CHCQM-PHYADV

Dr. Pinzon

Dr. Pinzon graduated from medical school at the National University of Colombia and practiced medicine in her country until 2006 when she moved to the U.S. She completed her training in internal medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta. Dr. Pinzon is currently a hospitalist and the medical director of care coordination at Emory Johns Creek Hospital, Johns Creek, Ga. Throughout her career, she has consistently and meaningfully engaged the community, with a focus on underserved Hispanic communities and those who are hesitant to engage with the health care system. She has partnered with the Atlanta Latin American Association, working directly to provide education about COVID-19 to the Hispanic population, including Facebook Live educational sessions and food-drive education. Her reputation and air of authoritative kindness have resulted in multiple interviews regarding COVID-19 safety and vaccination community education in both English and Spanish media, including Univision, Fox 5 News, and Telemundo. In collaboration with the Gwinnett Public Library system, she has presented and recorded culturally competent Spanish-language diabetes and COVID-19 information presentations that are aired on YouTube. As both a physician and a humanitarian, Dr. Pinzon has used her expertise to improve care and outreach to underserved communities.  

Excellence in Research

Derek Williams, MD, MPH

Dr. Williams

Dr. Williams is an associate professor of pediatrics and chief of the division of hospital medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn. Dr. Williams is a clinical and health services researcher with a federally funded research program centered on improving care delivery and outcomes for children with pneumonia and other acute respiratory illnesses. He has contributed substantially to numerous studies that have advanced the field, including the landmark Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Etiology of Pneumonia in the Community (EPIC) study. This study was the largest prospective investigation of pediatric pneumonia hospitalizations ever conducted in the U.S., and fundamentally altered how we think about pneumonia etiology in the era of highly effective pneumococcal vaccines. Currently, his research team is focused on the conduct of two National Institutes of Health-funded pragmatic randomized trials testing the effectiveness of predictive analytics and clinical decision support to optimize antibiotic utilization and inform disease-severity assessments in childhood pneumonia. In total, Dr. Williams has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in top-tier journals. He is an active research mentor, with nine current trainees and junior faculty, including two Research Career Development awardees. He also serves on the executive council for the pediatric research in inpatient settings (PRIS) network, an independent, hospital-based research network that has garnered more than $32 million in federal grants to conduct innovative research. 

Excellence in Teaching

Christopher Moriates, MD

Dr. Moriates

Dr. Chris Moriates is a practicing hospitalist and clinician-educator dedicated to improving the safety, quality, and value of care delivered to patients. Over the past 10 years, Dr. Moriates has contributed on many fronts to the recent transformation in medical education from “choosing more to choosing wisely.” 

He has created impactful programs and resources with an international reach. He co-authored the book “Understanding Value-Based Healthcare” (McGraw-Hill, 2015), which surgeon and writer Atul Gawande called “a masterful primer for all clinicians.” He led the creation of the Dell Med Discovering Value-Based Health Care online learning platform (vbhc.dellmed.utexas.edu), currently used by medical professionals and trainees across the U.S. He also created and leads the U.S. Choosing Wisely Students and Trainees Advocating for Resource Stewardship (STARS) program, which has included approximately 500 medical students from more than 50 medical schools over the past five years. The trainee-led STARS model has now emerged in eight countries, and Dr. Moriates serves as co-chair of the medical education strategy for the International Choosing Wisely Consortium. 

He is also the executive director at Costs of Care, a global, nonprofit, change-cultivating agent focused on making health care more affordable and equitable.  

Excellence in Teamwork

The Buprenorphine Team

The B Team at Dell Seton Medical Center and Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin

The Buprenorphine Team (B-Team) at Dell Seton Medical Center and Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin is a hospitalist-led interprofessional team that has worked over the past four years to transform internal organizational culture and the standard of care for recognizing and managing opioid use disorder (OUD) in the hospital setting. 

The team, including hospitalists, psychiatrists, palliative care practitioners, social workers, nurses, pharmacists, chaplains, and people with lived experience was founded in 2017 to identify patients with OUD, start buprenorphine therapy for interested patients, implement hospital-based harm reduction strategies, link patients directly to addiction care after discharge, and provide institutional education to reduce the stigma of patients with substance use disorders. The B-Team was the first program of its kind in Texas and one of few in the country to empower hospitalists to treat OUD as a routine part of acute hospitalization. 

The B-Team has systematically engaged team members at five additional hospitals across Texas to work as a collaborative team to expand access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) for hospitalized patients. Moving forward, the team will work on expanding the program to additional substance use disorder diagnoses. The emphasis on teamwork and collaboration allowed our partner hospitals to increase statewide institutional knowledge and comfort with buprenorphine and other MOUD. The B-Team presents a highly effective model that has proven to be transferrable using existing hospital resources. 

Outstanding Service in Hospital Medicine

Amith Skandhan, MD, FACP, SFHM

Dr. Skandhan

Dr. Skandhan is an assistant professor and internal medicine hospitalist at Southeast Health in Dothan, Ala. He holds leadership roles in revenue optimization, population health, and graduate medical education. As a co-founder of SHM’s Wiregrass chapter, he aimed to improve the quality of medicine practiced in the rural area it served. He frequently visited regional hospitals and clinics to understand their specific concerns and hardships. Using the resources provided by SHM, he led projects which led to improvements in patient flow and throughput, established revenue optimization streams, and boosted population health in these rural institutions. He developed a network of grassroots health care advocates who have met with Alabama state legislature members to present case studies that reflected pressing local patient care issues. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Alabama, Dr. Skandhan realized the disease would disproportionately affect smaller rural hospitals and hospitalists due to institutional isolation and lack of resources. He formed a weekly statewide meeting for hospital medicine program directors, sharing care pathways, discussing supply chain issues, and addressing leadership challenges. The forum collaborated with the Alabama Public Health Department and Alabama state health policy committee to address the hurdles of frontline providers. Dr. Skandhan also sought to address vaccine hesitancy in Alabama, given statewide low vaccination rates. He organized a discussion forum where physicians, community religious leaders, and government officials discussed COVID-related topics with an evidence-driven but non-judgmental approach. To improve academic outreach during the pandemic, his SHM chapter also created an e-poster competition on Twitter with more than 500,000 digital interactions. Additionally, he led outcome-driven, multi-month collaborative virtual projects with institutions across the country to improve trainee well-being and facilitate faculty development.

Junior Investigator Award

SHM’s Junior Investigator Award recognizes junior/early-stage investigators whose research interests focus on the care of hospitalized patients, the organization of hospitals, or the practice of hospitalists. 

Micah T. Prochaska, MD, MSc

Dr. Prochaska

Dr. Prochaska is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago. He is a clinical investigator and hospitalist clinician and is supported by grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study how red blood cell transfusion for hospitalized patients with anemia affects their fatigue, activity, and fatigability levels after they have been discharged from the hospital. Dr. Prochaska’s work has been recognized by the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies, who elected him to their patient blood management and clinical transfusion medicine guidelines committees, and by the Society for the Advancement of Patient Blood Management, where he is chair of the scientific committee. 

Dr. Prochaska is also the associate director and co-investigator of the University of Chicago Hospitalist Project research infrastructure and is involved in the integration of the Chicago Area Patient Centered Outcomes Research Network into clinical research at the University of Chicago. He is co-investigator of the University of Chicago Translational Medicine Program, and the Cultivating Health & Aging Researchers by Integrating Science, Medicine, & Aging Program, both of which train undergraduate students in clinical and translational research. Dr. Prochaska is an associate director of the MacLean Center for Clinical and Medical Ethics and a Healthcare Delivery Science and Innovation Scholar, both at the University of Chicago.