May 12, 2004

Dr. Eric B. Larson wins Glaser Award

Medical Society honors director of Group Health Center for Health Studies

Seattle—Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH, director of Group Health Center for Health Studies, will receive the highest award given by the Society of General Internal Medicine, an international group of academic general internists. The Society will honor Larson with the Robert J. Glaser Award on May 15 at their 27th Annual Meeting in Chicago.

The Glaser Award recognizes outstanding contributions to medical generalism in research, education—or, as for Larson, both:

  • His research on aging and improving health care quality "has consistently anticipated future trends," said Stephan D. Fihn, MD, MPH, head of the University of Washington's Division of General Internal Medicine.
  • As an educator, Larson "serves as an outstanding role model," Fihn added.
  • Concurrently, Larson has continued "as an astute and compassionate clinician," said Fihn.

C. Seth Landefeld, MD, a University of California, San Francisco professor of medicine, hailed Larson's "creativity" and "concrete action to keep generalism alive … when it is threatened." For instance, Larson chaired a Society task force whose proposal to redefine general internal medicine was summarized in the Annals of Internal Medicine's April 20, 2004 issue.

A committee of Society of General Internal Medicine members selects the winners of the yearly award given in honor of Robert J. Glaser, MD, a longtime leader in American academic medicine. Glaser served as dean of the medical schools at Washington University in St. Louis, Stanford University, and the University of Colorado, helping to transform medical education and research. Previous awardees have included renowned clinical epidemiologists David Sackett, MD, and Alvan Feinstein, MD, as well as many and other well-known academic leaders. Grants from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, and individuals support the award.

About Eric Larson, MD, MPH

Larson became director of Group Health Center for Health Studies in November 2002. A past president of the Society of General Internal Medicine, Larson is also an attending physician and a professor of medicine and health services at the University of Washington. There, he was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the public health school and, from 1989 to 2002, the medical center's medical director and the medical school's associate dean for clinical affairs.

Larson graduated from Harvard Medical School and trained at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital and Seattle's University Hospital. A fellow of the American College of Physicians, Larson has chaired its Board of Regents since April 22.

About Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente has a mission to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve more than 12.4 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal Permanente Medical Group physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: kp.org/share.


Media contact

For more on Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute news, please contact:

Amelia Apfel

Amelia.X.Apfel@kp.org

(425) 507-5455
After-hours media line: (206) 287-2055

page-twitter-icon.png @KPWaResearch