Penn Medicine’s Dr. Eric Goren to Receive 2014 One Health Award

 

Philadelphia, PA — Eric Goren, MD, of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has been named the 2014 recipient of Penn’s One Health Award, in recognition of his exemplary contributions to expanding interdisciplinary education and improving health care. Penn’s “Bridging the Gaps” program also will be honored for excellence in interprofessional service and education. The award ceremony will take place on October 15 at 6:00 p.m. at the Inn at Penn (3600 Sansom St., Philadelphia), as part of the Microbial Communities in Health and Disease symposium.

Goren is an assistant professor of clinical medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine, and holds secondary appointments at the Schools of Dental Medicine and Nursing. For the past seven years, Dr. Goren has served as co-clinic director and faculty advisor of the United Community Clinic (UCC) in West Philadelphia. UCC provides free medical, social, and mental health care services to residents of the medically under-served community of East Parkside.

Through his work with UCC, Dr. Goren, in collaboration with faculty members from the Schools of Nursing and Social Policy and Practice, provides guidance to students from Penn’s Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine, Nursing, Social Policy and Practice, and Arts and Sciences, who work in collaborative inter-professional teams to provide in-depth and multi-disciplinary care to patients. Students receive an unparalleled experience in cross-disciplinary delivery of health promotion services at the community level, and gain an appreciation for the role that each member must play in ensuring comprehensive delivery of care. In recognition of his dedication and mentorship, Dr. Goren received the Provost’s Award for teaching excellence at Penn in 2012 and has received eight other teaching awards in his short time on faculty.

“I’m honored to be recognized in this way, but I’m also thrilled for an opportunity to raise awareness about what other committed faculty and I are doing collectively at UCC,” said Dr. Goren. “I know that this multi-disciplinary care approach is making a difference for these patients, in addition to providing a valuable and essential learning experience for the students.”

The “Bridging the Gaps” (BTG) Community Health Internship Program (CHIP) was founded at the University of Pennsylvania and fully implemented in 1991. It began as an internship program for medical students, but soon expanded to include students from Penn’s other health schools and the School of Social Policy and Practice. The program then grew to become an inter-institutional collaboration among the five academic health centers in Philadelphia (Drexel University, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Temple University, Thomas Jefferson University, and the University of Pennsylvania), as well as academic health center-based programs in Erie, Lehigh Valley, Pittsburgh, and New Jersey (Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Lehigh Valley Health Network/DeSales University, University of Pittsburgh, and Rutgers University).

Dr. Lucy Tuton, Executive Director of BTG, states that the program “strives to meet its dual mission of service and training through the provision of effective community-based health-related services for vulnerable and economically disadvantaged populations, while offering partnering community organizations an essential and valued extension to existing services.”

The team that has responsibility for the Penn Component Program consists of Lucy Wolf Tuton, PhD; Ellen Martinak, MS; Louis M. Bell, Jr., MD; Anthony Rostain, MD, MA; Peter F. Cronholm, MD, MSCE; Bridget McCormick, BS; Susan Primavera; Ann L. O’Sullivan, PhD, FAAN, CRNP; Zvi D. Gellis, PhD; Joan I. Gluch, PhD, RDH; and Mary Frances Cummings, MPH, RDH.

BTG CHIP students are placed with community organizations where they work in multi-disciplinary teams. Across all the participating academic institutions, 10 to 12 health and service professions are represented each year by roughly 250 student participants. This interprofessional approach brings an array of talents to community sites and gives students the opportunity to learn about and collaborate with professions other than their own, preparing them for future cross-disciplinary teamwork.

About the One Health Award
The One Health Award, in its second year of promoting One Health initiatives and Inter-professional Education, was established by the deans of the four health schools at Penn—the Perelman School of Medicine, the School of Nursing Science, the School of Dental Medicine, and the School of Veterinary Medicine.

The One Health concept is a worldwide strategy to expand interdisciplinary collaboration and communication in all aspects of health care for humans, animals, and the environment.