New Mexico ChapterChapter AwardsNovember 2014

Maricruz Merino, MD, FACPCommunity Service and Volunteerism

Award

Kendall M. Rogers, MD, FACPTeaching Excellence Award

2014

“No person was ever honoured for what hereceived. Honour has been the

reward for what he gave.”

-Calvin Coolidge

Resident and Medical Student Leadership and ServiceAwards

We are also pleased to announce the recipients ofResident and Medical Student Leadership and ServiceAwards for their dedication and contributions in the fieldof internal medicine through scholarship, education,research, and community service. Please join us incongratulating them.

Alberto Aguayo, MD Resident Leadership and Service Award

Elizabeth RodriquezMedical Student Leadership and Service Award

Kendall M. Rogers, MD, FACP2014 Teaching Excellence Award

Dr. Kendall Rogers, currently Associate Professorand Chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine atthe University of New Mexico School of Medicine,is a nationally renowned hospitalist and excellenteducator. He has been an ardent supporter of theAmerican College of Physicians. Every year since2005, he has voluntarily and without anycompensation presented lectures at our Chapter’sAnnual Scientific Session, and has repeatedlybeen rated one of our favorite speakers. Dr. Rogers received an undergraduate degree inbiochemistry from the University of New Mexico,

and then graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in2002. He completed his residency at the University of New Mexico in 2005.Upon completion of his residency, he was appointed to the UNM faculty. Dr. Rogers has had a meteoric academic career at UNM. In 2006, he wasappointed Chief of the new Section of Hospital Medicine. He immediatelybecame very active on the faculty and with hospital committees as aneducator, administrator, and as the main champion for patient safety andquality improvement in the hospital. He is now recognized at UNM as the“go-to” senior leader in quality improvement. In 2010 he received nationalacclaim, being named by the American College of Physicians as one of thetop 10 hospitalists in the country.Dr. Rogers has been innovative in the area of education. He designed abrand new resident elective in health care economics at the University ofNew Mexico, which is still one of the resident’s favorite electives. He isregularly cited as one of the top educators by internal medicine residents.He regularly participates in the instruction of first year medical students. Heis recognized among his colleagues as an expert teacher in the area ofclinical informatics and has co-authored a textbook on clinical decisionsupport. His energetic, highly-informative lecture style is legendary. Hereceives many requests to speak locally and nationally. He has been aninvited speaker at the Society of Hospital Medicine’s Annual Meeting everyyear since 2008.Dr. Rogers has been very effective at building patient safety and qualityimprovement teams. At a time when there were hardly any physicianmentors in the area quality improvement in New Mexico, he provided one-on-one coaching to numerous colleagues about how to do quality improvementand patient safety in the hospital. He is now recognized as a national experton teaching quality improvement and serves as a mentor in Society ofhospital Medicine’s Glycemic Control Mentored Implementation Program.His role in this program, for which he received the 2011 Eisenberg Awardfrom The Joint Commission, is to mentor hospitalists from all over the countryin implementing quality control programs in their hospitals.Because of his extraordinary commitment to excellence in teaching andmentoring, the New Mexico Chapter of the American College of Physicians ishonored to present the 2014 Teaching Excellence Award to Dr. KendallRogers.

Maricruz Merino, MD, FACP2014 Community Service and Volunteerism Award

Dr. Maricruz Merino has been involved with caringfor underserved and vulnerable patients her entireprofessional career. She attended college at theUniversity of Rhode Island, then achieved hermedical degree at Brown Medical School. Whileat Brown, she was an Albert Schweitzer Fellowthrough Dartmouth Medical School. She thencompleted her internship and residency in internalmedicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Merino’s passion for caring for vulnerablepopulations led her to New Mexico, where shejoined the staff of Gallup Indian Medical Center.While working as a general internist in Gallup, she

completed a Fellowship in the Disparities Leadership Program throughMassachusetts General Hospital and became an Associate Physician inMedicine in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’sHospital.In Gallup, Dr. Merino reinvigorated the medical education program of theBrigham and Women’s Outreach Program. This Outreach Program is aunique collaboration where there is support for Brigham physiciansvolunteering at Indian Health Service hospitals to provide patient care andteaching to medical and nursing staff, both in person and viatelemedicine/teleconferencing. This innovative program has reduced healthdisparities, improved clinical care, increased access to subspecialists forpatients, and reduced professional isolation for physicians in both rural NewMexico and Boston. Dr. Merino has recruited physicians from Boston to volunteer in thisprogram, championed interdisciplinary education, and coordinated morethan a hundred educational talks. She has collaborated with other hospitalsincluding the University of New Mexico, Lovelace, Northern Navajo MedicalCenter, Chinle Comprehensive Care Center, Fort Defiance Indian Hospital,and Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital to provide these educational talksand promote best practices. In doing so, she has championed capacity-building interventions that have led to improved patient care, increasedteamwork, and increased physician job satisfaction.She has been recognized for her work in promoting interdisciplinaryeducation for physicians caring for the underserved by receiving an AreaDirector’s Award from Navajo Area Indian Health Service and an IndianHealth Service Director’s Award as an Outstanding Provider. She wasrecognized as a 2014 Clinician Hero of the Year by the Association ofClinicians for the Underserved. She is also a Fellow in the College.In recognition of her dedication to care of the underserved, interprofessionaleducation, and reducing disparities, the New Mexico Chapter of theAmerican College of Physicians is pleased to honor Dr. Maricruz Merino withthe 2014 Community Service and Volunteerism Award.