2019 Winners: Brian S. Schwartz, MD & Steven K. Schmitt, MD, FIDSA
Brian S. Schwartz, MD
Brian S. Schwartz, MD, a nationally recognized leader in infectious diseases medical education, is the recipient of a 2019 IDSA Society Citation. First awarded in 1977, this is a discretionary award given in recognition of exemplary contribution to IDSA, an outstanding discovery in the field of infectious diseases, or a lifetime of outstanding achievement.
As increasing numbers of physicians seek careers in medical education and as the ID specialty works to attract applicants to the field, Dr. Schwartz’s efforts to enhance ID medical education have been particularly critical. He has been instrumental in the development of a robust medical education track that now runs throughout IDWeek. Entering its fifth year, the program has grown to include Meet the Professor sessions and symposia, an abstract category with posters and an oral abstract session, a coaching program for junior faculty clinician educators, and videos providing teaching instruction to IDWeek speakers to help them deliver effective presentations. He has also led efforts to enhance preclinical microbiology education, an important opportunity to interest medical students in careers in ID.
A past member of IDSA’s Education Committee, Dr. Schwartz served as the founding chair of the Society’s Medical Education Work Group, and, with others, has been leading efforts to launch IDSA’s Medical Education Community of Practice, the organization’s first community of practice. The group will support IDSA members to become better teachers of all learner groups, and will support and advocate for the career development of clinician educators, with the end goal of helping to recruit the best and brightest to the field of ID.
Dr. Schwartz is a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he serves as vice chief of clinical affairs for the Division of Infectious Diseases and as director of the ID fellowship program, in addition to holding several teaching roles, where he has had a great impact on students and trainees. He was elected into the Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators at his institution, and he has received several additional honors for teaching and mentoring, including the Gold-Headed Cane Endowed Teaching Chair in Internal Medicine at UCSF. After earning his medical degree from Rush Medical College, Dr. Schwartz completed his internship and residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital, followed by fellowships in infectious diseases and clinical pharmacology at UCSF.
A collaborative innovator, Dr. Schwartz has played a leading role in driving IDSA’s efforts to support ID medical education and to develop it as an area of concentration. His accomplishments will impact students, residents, fellows, and ID fellows for years to come. IDSA is delighted to add a 2019 Society Citation to his long list of accomplishments.
Steven K. Schmitt, MD, FIDSA
Steven K. Schmitt, MD, FIDSA, a leading voice for the appropriate recognition of the value of the infectious diseases specialist, is the recipient of a 2019 IDSA Society Citation. First awarded in 1977, this is a discretionary award given in recognition of exemplary contribution to IDSA, an outstanding discovery in the field of infectious diseases, or a lifetime of outstanding achievement.
For more than a decade, Dr. Schmitt has represented IDSA and its members with several key advisory committees of the American Medical Association, including those that define reimbursement value for all the procedures that ID clinicians perform, making effective representation crucial for the specialty. As chair of IDSA’s Value of ID Specialists Task Force, he led the group’s efforts resulting in two seminal publications in Clinical Infectious Diseases: The first, in 2014, reported data demonstrating the value of ID physician consultation in the care of hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries. The second, in 2019, provided similar data for privately insured patients under the age of 65. The two studies have formed the backbone of efforts to demonstrate the value of ID physicians to the systems where they practice.
A past member of IDSA’s Board of Directors, Dr. Schmitt has served on or led several additional Society committees, including the Clinical Affairs Committee, the Governance Task Force, the Guidelines Task Force, the Quality Improvement Task Force, the ID Specialty Recruitment Task Force, and the vertebral osteomyelitis guidelines panel. He is also a member of IDSA’s Leadership Institute Work Group. A leadership and management training program designed exclusively for mid-career ID and HIV specialists, the inaugural leadership institute was held earlier this year, the start of a critical effort to enable the next generation of ID physician leaders. He has served on multiple additional committees at the state level and at his institution.
Dr. Schmitt is as staff physician in the Department of Infectious Disease at the Cleveland Clinic, where is also head of the Section of Bone and Joint Infections. An associate professor of medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, he received his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, followed by residency and ID fellowship training at the Cleveland Clinic.
Whether hearing him speak to fellows at IDSA’s Clinical Fellows Meeting, to lawmakers on Capitol Hill on behalf of members and patients, or at state, regional, and national meetings for invited lectures, Dr. Schmitt’s passionate advocacy for ID physicians and their value is readily apparent. For his efforts on multiple fronts to successfully advance recognition of the value of the ID specialist, the Society is delighted to recognize him with a 2019 Society Citation.
Past Society Citation Award Winners
| 2018 | Louis D. Saravolatz, MD, FIDSA |
| 2017 | Wendy S. Armstrong, MD, FIDSA Patrick Joseph, MD, FIDSA Dean, L. Winslow, MD, FIDSA |
| 2016 | Mark A. Leasure Bruce G. Gellin, MD, MPH, FIDSA Martin G. Myers, MD, FIDSA, FPIDS |
| 2015 | Helen W. Boucher, MD, FIDSA |
| 2014 | David L. Thomas MD, MPH, FIDSA |
| 2013 | Marguerite A. Neill, MD Catherine M. Wilfert, MD |
| 2012 | Myron S. Cohen, MD, FIDSA N. Cary Engleberg, MD, FIDSA Alan D. Tice, MD, FIDSA, FSHEA |
| 2011 |
Carol J. Baker, MD, FIDSA |
| 2010 |
John G. Bartlett, MD, FIDSA |
| 2009 | Warren D. Johnson, Jr., MD, FIDSA |
| 2008 | Russell Petrak, MD |
| 2007 |
Gary P. Wormser, MD, FIDSA |
| 2006 |
Larry J. Strausbaugh, MD, FIDSA |
| 2005 |
George G. Jackson, MD |
| 2004 |
Stanley Falkow, PhD |
| 2003 | Morton N. Swartz, MD Julie Gerberding, MD, on behalf of the CDC staff |
| 2002 | Marvin Turck, MD C. Douglas Webb, PhD |
| 2001 | George W. Counts, MD |
| 2000 | Dennis George Maki, MD Dennis L. Stevens, MD, PhD |
| 1999 | Sydney Finegold, MD |
| 1998 | Porter Anderson, PhD John Robbins, MD Rachel Schneerson, MD David Smith, MD |
| 1997 | Johan Septimus Bakken, MD |
| 1996 | Donald A. Henderson, MD |
| 1995 | King Holmes, MD, PhD |
| 1994 | David Rogers, MD Edward Hook, III, MD |
| 1993 | Dorothy Horstmann, MD Samuel Katz, MD Harold Neu, MD |
| 1992 | Robert Austrian, MD Jay Sanford, MD |
| 1988 | Martha Yow, MD |
| 1987 | Margaret Pittman, PhD, MS |
| 1986 | Victor Nussenzweig, MD |
| 1985 | Robert Gallo, MD Luc Montagnier, CNRS Sheldon Wolff, MD |
| 1984 | Allen Steere, MD |
| 1983 | Maurice Hilleman, PhD Saul Krugman, MD |
| 1982 | James Todd, MD |
| 1981 | Don Brenner, MS, PhD William Cherry MS, PhD and Colleagues James Freeley, PhD Joseph McDade, PhD |
| 1977 | Edward Kass, MD, PhD, M |