The Society of Hospital Medicine inducted four new Masters in Hospital Medicine (MHM) at SHM Converge 2025 in Las Vegas.
This honor was introduced by SHM in 2010 to acknowledge hospitalists who have made significant contributions to hospital medicine and healthcare overall; it is the highest professional recognition given by the Society.
Congratulations to the 2025 inductees: Guilherme B. Barcellos, MD, MHM; Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSc, MHM; Jennifer S. Myers, MD, MHM; and Rachel E. Thompson, MD, MPH, MHM.
Guilherme B. Barcellos, MD, MHM
Dr. Barcellos
Dr. Barcellos has been elected a Master in Hospital Medicine as a pioneer of the hospitalist movement in Brazil and South America while making contributions to SHM and hospital medicine in the U.S. He is the first hospitalist based outside of the U.S. to earn this distinction.
Dr. Barcellos currently practices at Hospital de Clínicas in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Previously, he built the first hospital medicine program staffed by a full-time hospitalist in his state and has also acted as a consultant or facilitator for several other pioneering projects throughout Brazil.
In 2004, he founded GEAMH, the Hospital Medicine Study and Update Group—the first organized movement to promote hospitalists in Brazil. Later, he founded the Brazilian Society of Hospital Medicine and the Brazilian Academy of Hospital Medicine. He has lectured on hospital medicine throughout Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Portugal, and at three SHM annual conferences.
Dr. Barcellos has attended SHM’s annual conference nearly every year since 2007 and served as co-chair of SHM’s International Hospitalist Section, which is now the Global Medicine Special Interest Group.
Dr. Barcellos also created and promoted Choosing Wisely Brazil to address the overuse of medical treatments and unnecessary care in the Brazilian healthcare system.
His commitment to hospital medicine, friendly and engaging style of communication, and active leadership both in Brazil and within SHM have led to the specialty’s growth in countries around the globe.
Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSc, MHM
Dr. Kripalani
Dr. Kripalani has been elected a Master in Hospital Medicine in recognition of his leadership, service, and innovations to advance the field of hospital medicine and our society.
Dr. Kripalani is a professor of medicine and health policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. He leads the Vanderbilt Center for Health Services Research and serves as vice president for health system sciences. He previously founded and served as chief of the section of hospital medicine.
Dr. Kripalani was among the first hospitalists to pursue a career in research and has mentored countless junior investigators.
His research is focused on care transitions, medication safety, and reducing readmissions. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed manuscripts in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of Hospital Medicine, among others. He is one of the most highly cited researchers in the field, and his work has shaped best practices for hospital discharge around the country.
Dr. Kripalani has been a member of SHM since 2000. In addition to serving as chair of the research abstract sessions and founder of the Innovations in Hospital Medicine abstract competition, he was a member of the inaugural class of Fellows and Senior Fellows.
He has been of immeasurable service to the Journal of Hospital Medicine, serving as assistant editor, deputy editor, and now, a member of the editorial board.
Dr. Kripalani is a founding member of the Hospital Medicine Re-Engineering Network, or HOMERuN, the premier national research network for adult hospital medicine.
Jennifer S. Myers, MD, MHM
Dr. Myers
Dr. Myers has been elected a Master in Hospital Medicine in honor of her leadership, mentorship, and scholarship.
Dr. Myers currently serves as the associate division chief of the division of hospital medicine at Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, where she also holds the title of professor of clinical medicine and executive director of the Penn Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Safety.
Dr. Myers has distinguished herself as a nationally recognized expert in integrating quality and safety into the framework of academic medical centers. Her work has been pivotal in establishing higher standards within medical education.
She has more than 80 peer-reviewed publications, has presented countless abstracts and workshops, and is a respected researcher in healthcare quality, studying strategies to integrate quality into safety into medical education and improve care delivery in the hospital.
Dr. Myers has supported and nurtured new career pathways in quality, safety, and hospital medicine, in particular, for women in medicine. She has mentored more than 100 individuals in her career and has championed programs to support hospitalist mothers at Penn to promote well-being and community.
Dr. Myers led the development of SHM’s Quality and Safety Educators Academy, which has trained more than 700 faculty members since its inception in 2012. She also received SHM’s Award of Excellence for Clinical Leadership for Physicians in 2010.
She has been a member of SHM since its founding in 2002. Dr. Myers has also served as faculty at SHM’s Academic Hospitalist Academy, co-chair of the innovations abstract selection committee, and member of the Hospital Quality and Patient Safety Committee, and founding member of HOMERun research collaborative. Dr. Myers was the founding president of SHM’s Philadelphia Chapter and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Hospital Medicine.
Rachel E. Thompson, MD, MPH, MHM
Dr. Thompson
Dr. Thompson has been elected a Master in Hospital Medicine in honor of her consistent, long-standing service to patients, colleagues, SHM, and the field of hospital medicine.
Dr. Thompson currently serves as the chief medical officer at Core Clinical Partners and is an adjunct professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Dr. Thompson’s impressive achievements in leadership, clinical care, and educational leadership, especially in perioperative medicine, have been instrumental to the specialty’s—and to the Society’s—growth.
During her tenure as SHM president and her time on the Board, her leadership guided the Society as it navigated the post-pandemic world. She traveled across the country—and around the globe—to meet SHM members to better understand the state of hospital medicine and how SHM can better serve hospitalists.
As an SHM member at large, Dr. Thompson helped to shape SHM’s approach to chapter growth and partnerships, including as president of the Pacific Northwest Chapter, a member of the Chapter Support Committee, and a mentor in the Chapter Mentorship Program.
More recently, she took on a last-minute faculty position at SHM Leadership Academy, stepping in for a faculty member who had fallen ill, and she performed flawlessly.
Her leadership has benefited SHM, the profession, and patient care.
MHM Nominations
A Master in Hospital Medicine is the highest honor in hospital medicine. Nominees should exemplify excellence through personal character, positions of honor, contributions to SHM, distinction in practice, education, and research, and achievements in hospital medicine. They must be highly accomplished in hospital medicine, demonstrating their impact through clinical care excellence, healthcare initiatives, education and research, publications, volunteer work, or administrative roles.
Current SHM Board members are not eligible for nomination. While most Masters will be physicians and hospitalists, non-physicians and non-hospitalists of exceptional merit and contributions to SHM and hospital medicine (including SHM employees and contractors) may be nominated for mastership. Nomination materials are active for five years from the date of submission. The Master’s Selection Committee evaluates nominees and recommends approvals to the SHM Board of Directors. For inquiries and submissions, contact SHM at [email protected] with “Submission for Master’s Candidate” in the subject line. The deadline for nominations is October 31, 2025.