Oral

The award annually honors someone who has advanced the quality of health care. Avedis Donabedian, MD, MPH (1919-2000), born to a physician in Beirut who had escaped the Armenian holocaust, earned his medical degree at the American University and taught there and later at Harvard, New York Medical College, and University of Michigan. Many credit Donabedian with founding research in quality of health care. His review of health services research (1966), his three-volume text (1980-1985), and other work have profoundly influenced other investigators in this field. This year, the Medical Care Section honors Thomas Bodenheimer, MD, MPH, Adjunct Professor of family medicine at UCSF and influential researcher and promoter of health care practice, for his enormous work and influence.