Rochester Physician Honored for Key Role Educating Nation’s Neurologists
Ralph Józefowicz, M.D.A Rochester neurologist who is widely credited with enhancing the education of neurologists nationwide has been honored by the discipline’s largest professional organization. The development is the latest sign of Rochester’s national leadership in neuromedicine.
Ralph Józefowicz, M.D., professor of Neurology and Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center, has been awarded the 2010 A.B. Baker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Neurologic Education by the American Academy of Neurology. He will receive the award at AAN’s annual meeting in Toronto in April.
Under Józefowicz’s leadership, Rochester has become widely recognized as a wellspring of quality education for neurologists. Doctors around the nation who are training in neurology routinely rank Rochester’s School of Medicine and Dentistry among their top choices. Within the school, the residents whom Józefowicz teaches typically garner a disproportionate share of teaching awards.
Medical students routinely rate the course on “Mind, Brain and Behavior” that Józefowicz designed as their favorite basic science class. Józefowicz’s efforts come into play during a crucial time for medical students, when they rotate through different specialties, trying to decide what aspect of medicine to focus on. At Rochester, medical students typically rank their time in Neurology highly, and they choose to go into neurology at a rate three or four times the national average.
Such educational endeavors compliment robust programs in research and patient care in the area of neuromedicine. For example, at the University of Rochester Medical Center, research into the nervous system and brain accounts for approximately one-third of all research.
“Being a neurologist is always challenging and very rewarding,” said Józefowicz. “Patients come in with myriad symptoms, and while technology can play a role, often by spending time with them, listening to them and examining them, you can determine what is going on.
“The number-one audience for a physician is the patient,” he added. “The first job as a physician is to teach patients how to manage illness. A good doctor is automatically a good teacher.”
Click here to read more about Józefowicz’s efforts in the realm of neurologic education.
