Each year, Az Business magazine honors the most innovative healthcare leaders in the state at its Healthcare Leadership Awards. And in front of a full house Thursday night at The Camby in Phoenix, the most innovative healthcare leaders in Arizona were honored.
“Healhchare Leadership Award winners and finalists represent all facets of healthcare in Arizona, from those who impact the communities they serve, legal advocates, medical companies that are changing the way the industry operates and facilities that are raising the level of care in Arizona to new levels of excellence,” said AZ Big Media Publisher Cheryl Green. “They are all doing extraordinary work.”
Winners of 2016 awards were:
Bioscience company: Translational Genomics Research Institute. While it’s already a global leader in genomics research, TGen’s annual economic impact on Arizona is $174 million.
Community impact: Lana Whitehead, president, SWIMKids USA. Since opening her own swim school in 1973, Whitehead and her staff have taught more than 100,000 children to be safer in the water.
Healthcare executive: Michele Finney, market CEO, Abrazo Community Health Network. Finney oversees six acute care hospitals, two free-standing emergency centers, a physicians group and nearly 5,000 employees.
Insurance provider: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona. Every year, BCBSAZ supports hundreds of charities and organizations and encourages employees to be active participants in their communities.
Legal advocate: Richard Mallery, partner, Snell & Wilmer. Mallery was the driving force bringing the International Genomics Consortium and the Translational Genomics Research Institute to Phoenix.
Medical center: Tucson Medical Center. Last year, 84,058 patients visited TMC’s emergency room, the hospital had 31,990 admissions and its physicians performed 9,356 inpatient and 12,492 outpatient surgeries.
Medical company: One Medical Group. One Medical Group focuses on building the physician-patient relationship and improving the average doctor’s office visit.
Physician: Richard Heuser, MD, chief of cardiology, St. Luke’s Medical Center and Phoenix Heart Center. Heuser is an internationally-recognized cardiologist, inventor, educator, author and one of the early pioneers of the angioplasty procedure.
Researcher: Glen J. Weiss, MD, director of clinical research and medical oncologist, Cancer Treatment Centers of America at at Western Regional Medical Center. Weiss has been actively researching the impact of immunotherapy.
Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr. Edward B. Diethrich. Diethrich developed of the sternal saw that is used routinely today for open chest surgery and initiated Phoenix’s first heart and heart/lung transplantation program.
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