October 24, 2019 | Lauren Woods - Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine

National Awards for UConn Health

This fall UConn Health and its faculty have been applauded on the national stage for their accomplishments. Read about our most recent accolades.

This fall UConn Health and its faculty have been applauded on the national stage for their accomplishments. The most recent accolades include:

Connecticut Poison Control Center Innovation
In late Sept. at The North American Congress of Clinical Toxicology 2019 meeting The Connecticut Poison Control Center received the American Association of Poison Control Center’s Innovation Award for Technical Engagement. Following a national contest the Poison Control Center was honored for its innovative implementation of Dragon Medical One dictation into its electronic medical record system. It is the first U.S. center to do so and several other poison control centers have successfully followed in their footsteps resulting in increased staff productivity and improved workplace wellness. Dr. Suzanne Doyon is the medical director of the Connecticut Poison Control Center based on UConn Health’s campus and also serves as assistant professor in UConn Health’s Department of Emergency Medicine.

NIH BRAIN Initiative Award Goes to UConn School of Medicine Researcher
On Oct. 18 the National Institutes of Health’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative announced its continued support for over 180 new BRAIN Initiative awards, bringing its 2019 budget to more than $424 million. This year, UConn School of Medicine’s Dr. Leslie Lowe was awarded $492,000 in BRAIN funding to explore his genetically targeted high sensitivity voltage sensitive dyes looking at specific brain areas or circuits. Brain cells primarily communicate through electrical signals and the ability to measure these ‘conversations’ in real time could help advance our understanding of how the brain works. Lowe’s group is developing a novel type of hybrid voltage sensor that binds a fluorescent protein to the brain cell’s surface and is connected to a quenching molecule that moves across the membrane, producing a large florescence signal during electrical activity. Lowe was one of over 270 investigators at 70 research institutions to receive Brain Initiative funding.

Four National Honors for Dr. Cato T. Laurencin
This October Dr. Cato T. Laurencin was honored with four national awards. The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) on Oct. 6 honored Laurencin for his extraordinary impact on the engineering profession with the Simon Ramo Founders Award for his research contributions and leadership in engineering. On. Oct 12 Laurencin was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for outstanding achievements in academia. He is the only active orthopaedic surgeon in the United States who is a member of the Academy, and the fifth orthopaedic surgeon ever inducted in the Academy’s 239th history. On Oct. 21 the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) honored Laurencin for his outstanding service with the Walsh McDermott Medal. Lastly, on Oct. 22 the United Nations announced it will honor Laurencin in Feb. 2020 in Ethiopia where he will receive The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s 2019 UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences. Laurencin serves as University Professor at UConn and Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Endowed Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at UConn Health.

Dr. Glenn Flores Honored for Advocacy in Public Health
In late September the American Public Health Association announced the 2019 recipients of its prestigious national awards recognizing public health leaders for their innovation and excellence in the field. Dr. Glenn Flores, chief research officer and director of the Health Services Research Institute at the Connecticut Children’s and associate chair of research and professor of pediatrics at UConn School of Medicine is being honored with the David P. Rall Award for Advocacy in Public Health for his work on public health policies and impact of community health workers on care in underserved communities, among other efforts. Flores will receive the award on Nov. 5 during APHA’s 2019 Annual Meeting and Expo in Philadelphia as “an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to public health through science-based advocacy.”