March 21, 2013
Atlanta, GA – Nearly 700 clinicians, advocates, researchers, academicians and policymakers dedicated to promoting adolescent health gathered last week for the annual meeting of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM). The theme for this year’s meeting, “We Can All Be Healthy: Achieving Health Equity for Adolescents and Young Adults,” demonstrated SAHM’s mission to reframe issues of health equity and actively focus on achieving health for all youth by addressing the social determinants of health. The meeting kicked off with an inspiring keynote presentation by Camara Phyllis Jones, MD, MPH, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Rollins School of Public Health (Emory University); and Adjunct Associate Professor, Morehouse School of Medicine.
At each annual meeting, SAHM members recognize those professionals who commit themselves to improving the health and health care resources of adolescents and young adults around the globe.
This year, the Society’s most prestigious award, the Outstanding Achievement Award in Adolescent Medicine, was awarded posthumously to David S. Rosen, MD, MPH, FSAHM. The award, established in 1981, recognizes individuals nationally and internationally for their commitment to improving the health and health care resources for adolescents and young adults.
Dr. Rosen served as chief of the Teenage and Young Adult Health Program and as associate director of education in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan. In these roles, Dr. Rosen specialized in working with children and adolescents struggling with conditions such as eating disorders, depression and the mental health challenges of those struggling with chronic illness. In 2012, he achieved one of several important career goals by opening an innovative day-treatment clinic, offering care and treatment for children and young adults with eating disorders, the only program of its kind in Michigan. Dr. Rosen, who was also a member of the SAHM Board of Directors, died on February 11 after an unsuccessful fight with cancer, at age 54.
“Dr. Rosen will be remembered for his remarkable humanity, his passion, his eternal optimism, his enormous contributions to adolescent health, and by the countless adolescents and young adults whose lives he touched,” said Dr. Debra Katzman, president of SAHM and Professor of Pediatrics, division of adolescent medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario. “His work was collaborative, clinically relevant, and always focusing on the health and well-being of adolescents and young adults. Dr. Rosen epitomized these principles throughout his career while teaching the next generation of adolescent medicine specialists.”
A number of other highly accomplished health professionals were recognized for their contributions to the field of adolescent health. Robert Abrams, MD, who began practicing medicine in 1964, won the Regional Chapter Award for his decades of work promoting reproductive care and sexuality education for teens. Sherine Patterson-Rose, MD, and Bianka Reese are the winners of SAHM’s two Career Development Awards, which help fund research by students interested in careers in adolescent health or medicine. Jennifer Salerno, DNP, CPNP, FAANP, is the recipient of the Millar Award for Innovative Approaches to Adolescent Health Care, for developing the RAAPS screening tool to understand and mitigate adolescent risk behaviors. Terrill D. Bravender, MD, MPH, James J. Burns, MD, MPH, and Jenny Proimos, MD, MPH all earned the designation as Fellows of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, SAHM’s credential recognizing a long-standing commitment to the welfare of adolescents and a willingness to advocate on their behalf.
For more about all of SAHM’s award winners, view our awards pages online.
SAHM’s 2014 annual meeting will take place in Austin, Texas, on March 23-26, and explore the theme “Nature and Nurture: Moving to a Deeper Understanding of Adolescent Health.”
About the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine
Founded in 1968, the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) is a multidisciplinary organization committed to improving the physical and psychosocial health and well-being of all adolescents through advocacy, clinical care, health promotion, health service delivery, professional development and research. Recognizing that health is more than the absence of disease, SAHM promotes positive youth development, illness prevention, achievement of individual potential and a sense of physical, mental, and social well-being. For more information on SAHM's mission and work, visit www.adolescenthealth.org or call 847.753.5226.
Media contact: Justin Dreyfuss, 847-753-5226 x351