EAST LANSING, Mich. — For her years of dedicated work in Africa studying and treating malaria, Michigan State University's Terrie Taylor is being honored with a 2011 American Medical Association Foundation Excellence in Medicine Award.
Taylor, an MSU University Distinguished Professor of internal medicine and an osteopathic physician, will be honored Feb. 8 at a dinner in Washington, D.C., with the Dr. Nathan Davis International Award in Medicine. Named for the AMA founder, the award recognizes physicians whose influence reaches the international patient population and changes the future of medical care.
Taylor is one of six physicians being honored by the foundation this year; the awards are presented in association with Pfizer Inc.
"These award recipients are truly awe-inspiring," AMA Foundation President Barney Maynard said. "They show everyone, inside and outside the medical community, the tremendous impact that one person can make in the world."
For more than 20 years, Taylor has been living part of the year in the eastern African nation of Malawi, working at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre. There she treats malaria patients - predominantly children - and conducts research on the disease that kills as many as 1 million children in sub-Saharan Africa every year.
Taylor and her research team recently were awarded a $9.1 million federal grant to create new malaria prevention and control strategies in the landlocked country.
The AMA Foundation - the philanthropic arm of the American Medical Association - annually honors a select group of physicians and medical students who exemplify the medical profession's highest values: commitment to service, community involvement, altruism, leadership and dedication to patient care. Taylor's award also comes with a $2,500 grant from the foundation.
For more information on the award and the foundation, go to www.amafoundation.org/go/excellence.
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Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for more than 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 17 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.