Award for lifetime achievement in graduate medical education recognizes his research into residency experience

CHICAGO, January 9, 2010 – DeWitt C. Baldwin Jr., MD, will be honored with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s Gienapp Award for distinguished achievement in graduate medical education at the organization’s Annual Educational Conference in March 2010.

Dr. Baldwin, who has been a scholar-in-residence at the ACGME since 2002, was selected for his decades of research into the learning experiences of residents, which has encompassed surveys and studies on resident sleep patterns, fatigue, and work and life balance.

Dr. Baldwin, described in a nomination letter as a “compassionate humanist,” has had a varied and illustrious career in research and teaching. After receiving his degree in economics from Swathmore College, Dr. Baldwin attended divinity school at Yale University before earning his medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine in 1949. Dr. Baldwin completed a residency in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Hospitals and residencies in adult and child psychiatry at Boston University’s University Hospital and Boston City Hospital.  He is board certified in family medicine and pediatrics.

Dr. Baldwin’s teaching and research interests have encompassed not only resident education, but also pediatrics, dentistry, child psychiatry, behavioral science, and rural health. He has served as head of the Department of Child and Development and Psychiatry at Forsyth Dental Center in Boston and consultant in Child Development and Psychiatry at the Harvard School of Public Health. He was a founding faculty member of the School of Medical Sciences, University of Nevada, Reno, and subsequently held several administrative positions there, including director of the Division of Health Sciences and assistant dean for rural and community health at the university. He also has served as director of the Division of Medical Education Research and Information and director of the Office of Education Research at the American Medical Association.

“This is a recognition that I prize very much,” said Dr. Baldwin. “It is a recognition that where I’ve been putting my life and energy count.”

“Bud Baldwin is respected as an investigator and educator, and revered as a role model by those involved in American graduate medical education, and those dedicated to interprofessional education. He is a man of values and virtue, an excellent investigator, a consummate educator, and a gentle man worthy of emulation,” said Thomas J. Nasca, MD, MACP, chief executive officer of the ACGME.

Dr. Baldwin will be honored at an awards luncheon held March 5 during the 2010 ACGME Annual Educational Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

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The ACGME is a private, non-profit council that accredits approximately 8,700 residency programs in 130 specialties and subspecialties educating 108,000 residents. Its mission is to improve health care by assessing and advancing the quality of resident physicians’ education through accreditation.