CIMIT CEO Dr. John Parrish Receives 2014 Distinguished Service Award from Department of Defense
BOSTON, MA (PRWEB) August 27, 2014 -- John Parrish, MD, and CEO of CIMIT, received the 2014 Distinguished Service Award at the annual Military Health Systems Research Symposium (MHSRS) for his contributions to military medicine. Colonel Dallas Hack and Rear Admiral Bruce Doll presented the award on behalf of the Medical Research and Materiel Command (MRMC) on August 21st at the closing day plenary session of MHSRS in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. MHSRS is the premier scientific meeting of the Department of Defense that addresses the unique medical needs of the Warfighter.
In presenting the award, Colonel Hack recognized Dr. Parrish for his exceptionally meritorious career in military health system research. Dr. Parrish, largely motivated by his experience serving as a battlefield doctor in Vietnam, has been a leader in utilizing technology to improve the care available to warfighters and society. In addition to his prolific experience as a pioneer of numerous technology-enabled treatments himself, he established the Consortia for Improving Medicine with Innovation & Technology (CIMIT) as a model to enable others to engage in collaborative efforts contributing to military medicine. As a result, the entire community of CIMIT-supported investigators from across Boston’s premier institutions has been able to make an even greater impact on military medicine in areas that range from trauma and casualty care, infectious disease and rehabilitation to the interoperability of devices and system to improve the continuity of care delivery.
Dr. Parrish was trained in internal medicine, dermatology and clinical research. For two decades, he served as chief of the Department of Dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). In addition to CIMIT, Dr. Parrish founded and led the Wellman Center for Photomedicine, the first and now the world’s largest multidisciplinary research group to study the effects of lasers on tissue, the Cutaneous Biology Research Center (CBRC) at MGH and was the founding Director of the MGH/Red Sox Foundation Home Base program, a multifaceted initiative aimed at helping veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq who are affected by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Dr. Parrish is a member of the Institutes of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Previously, he has been awarded the U.S. Army’s Thurman Award, honoring the late Gen. Maxwell Reid Thurman who championed the advancement of lifesaving medical technologies within the U.S. Army; the Bowditch Prize from Massachusetts General Hospital for enhancing the quality of patient care while reducing the cost of that care; and two awards from the American Skin Association (ASA) – the 2011 Humanitarian Award for his wide-ranging lifetime professional contributions to the field of dermatology, and the 2011 David Martin Carter Mentorship Award for being extraordinarily caring and effective in guiding trainees. He is the first individual to have received both the David Martin Carter Mentor and Humanitarian Awards in the 25-year history of the ASA. Dr. Parrish is the author or co-author of more than 300 publications, including six books.
About CIMIT
CIMIT is a non-profit consortium of leading teaching hospitals, universities and labs that accelerates healthcare innovation and commercialization to improve patient care. CIMIT fosters and facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration among clinicians, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and industry to develop novel products and services addressing unmet clinical needs. For more information visit http://www.cimit.org.
For media inquiries, contact Marc Filerman at 617-643-3831, mfilerman(at)partners(dot)org.
Marc Filerman, CIMIT, http://www.cimit.org, +1 617-643-3831, [email protected]
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