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Awards & Recognitions – October 2023

In the News

NIH Award

Robert Bowser, PhD
Robert Bowser, PhD
Jeremy M. Shefner, MD, PhD
Jeremy Shefner, MD, PhD

Barrow Neurological Institute received a large award from the National Institutes of Health to help create and lead a national amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) clinical research consortium. This award is the largest Barrow has ever received from the NIH, with a first-year budget of $16.7 million. The new consortium will include 34 clinical sites. Robert Bowser, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Barrow, and Jeremy Shefner, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer of Clinical Research at Barrow, are among the researchers managing the sites.

Netter Art Exhibit Award

This illustration depicts the symptoms a patient might experience when they have a cavernous malformation in the inferior cerebellar peduncle. It was published in an article from Dr. Michael T. Lawton’s Seven Cavernomas series in the Journal of Neurosurgery.

Kristen Larson Keil, manager of Neuroscience Publications at Barrow, received an award at the Quinnipiac University Netter 10th Anniversary Juried Art Exhibit. The exhibit displayed two medical illustrations submitted by Kristen, one of which (above) received third place in the professional artist category. The art exhibit was part of the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine’s 10th Anniversary Symposium and Celebration in September. It honored Dr. Netter’s legacy by featuring diverse works inspired by, or in the style of, Dr. Netter’s illustrations.

NASS Award

Juan Pedro Giraldo, MD, a neurosurgery research fellow in the virtual reality laboratory of the Sonntag Spine Center, received the 2023 Resident and Fellow Research Award from the North American Spine Society at the organization’s 38th annual meeting in Los Angeles, California. The award recognizes clinical research advancements in spine surgery. Dr. Giraldo’s research found that muscle features, especially lumbar muscle characteristics, affect clinical outcomes before and after minimally invasive spine surgery. He and his team in the Sonntag Spine Center pursued this work with patient outcomes in mind.

Daisy Award

Makenzie Duenkel, a registered nurse on 7NNB at Barrow, received a DAISY Award from The DAISY Foundation for outstanding nursing after being nominated by a patient’s family member, who noted Makenzie’s attentiveness and caring demeanor.

WebMD, Medscape Choice Awards

Barrow Neurological Institute at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center was among the recipients of the 2023-2024 WebMD Choice Awards, earning the following recognitions: WebMD Patient Choice Brain Surgery Arizona, Medscape Provider Choice Neurology Phoenix Metro Area, and Medscape Provider Choice Neurology Arizona. The WebMD Choice Awards are based solely on the perception of patients and providers, using up-to-date data from the past year.