Harvard’s White honored for excellence as clinician and educator

Banner Staff

Dr. Augustus A. White III, the Ellen and Melvin Gordon Professor of Medical Education at Harvard Medical School (HMS), received an award from the American Orthopaedic Association (AOA) honoring his contributions to orthopedics at a ceremony held during the AOA’s 120th annual meeting in Asheville, N.C., earlier this month.

According to the AOA, the AOA-Smith & Nephew Endoscopy Distinguished Clinician Educator Award — which is co-sponsored by the endoscopy division of Smith & Nephew, Inc., a London-based medical devices company — is intended to recognize the recipient’s “personal achievement and broad contribution to orthopedics” and emphasizes the “critical role of clinician educators within academic health centers.”

To be considered for the award, one must display specific educational and clinical excellence. Specific qualifications for educational excellence include occupying leadership positions in education at a medical school, making contributions to education research, development of course syllabi and other curriculum materials, and service as a mentor to other orthopedists. Clinical qualifications include having a national or international reputation as a clinician, scholarly writing related to clinical practice, and evidence of being an effective role model for students, residents, fellows and/or colleagues.

To say that White satisfies those criteria would be an understatement.

White was the orthopedic surgeon-in-chief at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for 13 years. In addition to being the Ellen and Melvin Gordon Professor of Medical Education at HMS, he is also a professor of orthopedics at the school. He is the former Master of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Society at HMS, and he trained 25 orthopedic surgeons in spine surgery under the Daniel E. Hogan Spine Fellowship Program.

His interest in orthopedics stemmed from his experiences in athletics, including those at Brown University, where he was a varsity athlete in football and lacrosse. His fascination with the orthopedic treatment of sports injuries brought him to attend Stanford Medical School, where he became interested in the problem of back pain, to the University of Michigan Medical Center as an intern, then to Presbyterian Medical Center, San Francisco, where he was a general surgery resident. After that, it was off to Yale Medical Center to complete his orthopedic residency.

White then joined the U.S. Army Medical Corps, serving for two years before continuing his studies in Sweden at the University of Gothenburg and at the Karolinska Institute, where he obtained a Ph.D. for research on the biomechanics of the spine.

Included with the award is a $25,000 honorarium.