AMA recognizes physicians for service

The "best the medical profession has to offer" take a bow at the AMA National Leadership Conference.

By Bonnie Booth, AMNews staff. March 26, 2001.

Washington -- Six physicians whose work ranges from founding and running a health clinic in Nepal to devoting a career to the care of a rural Kansas community were named this year's Pride in the Profession Award recipients by the AMA.

The awards, given in conjunction with the Pfizer Medical Humanities Initiative, honor physicians "whose devotion to the highest values of medical practice have healed patients, enriched communities and inspired colleagues." They were presented at the AMA National Leadership Conference held here earlier this month.

This year's recipients were:

Thomas T. Haider, MD, an orthopedic surgeon from Riverside, Calif. Dr. Haider established the Children's Spine Foundation in 1994 to provide free comprehensive spinal care for children without health insurance.

A native of Afghanistan, Dr. Haider sponsors a children's hospital in his homeland by supporting the salaries of 40 physicians and providing funds for all medication and food supplies. He called most of the assembled doctors heroes in their own right.

"So many of you provide so much for your communities, for health care and for your patients," he said.

Syed Arshad Husain, MD, a child psychiatrist from Columbia, Mo. Dr. Husain is the founding director of the International Center for Psychosocial Trauma at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine.

Dr. Husain has made more than 20 voluntary trips to Bosnia and Herzegovina to work with traumatized children. He has trained more than 2,000 teachers and more than 200 mental health professionals to help children deal with the trauma and tragedy of war. [...]