The University of Toledo

Walk into the atrium of the Center for Creative Education on UT’s Health Science Campus, and you can pay homage to physicians, organizations and others who have devoted themselves to advancing the health and well-being of people around the world.

On a wall are plaques with engraved names and portraits of 21 members of The University of Toledo College of Medicine’s Medical Mission Hall of Fame.

Three more — the sixth class of honorees — will be inducted Saturday, March 28.

Drs. Jeffery E. Heck, John P. Howe and Bruce C. Steffes will be honored during a program in the Center for Creative Education atrium from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

Hussain

Also to be recognized that evening will be Dr. S. Amjad Hussain, who will receive the Lawrence V. Conway Lifetime Distinguished Service Award.

Conway, of Toledo, founded the Medical Mission Hall of Fame in 2004 to honor those individuals and/or organizations that have made significant and substantial contributions to advancing the medical well-being of people throughout the world. The Medical Mission Hall of Fame became an affiliate of UT’s College of Medicine in 2006 and its permanent home was established in the Center for Creative Education.

A 1979 graduate of the Medical College of Ohio, Heck, of Asheville, N.C., founded Shoulder to Shoulder, which is dedicated to improving the lives of people living in poor countries through the delivery of health care, nutrition and education. Heck is the first graduate of The University of Toledo/Medical College of Ohio to be inducted into the Medical Mission Hall of Fame.

Howe is president and chief executive officer of Project HOPE, the health education and humanitarian organization that for more than 50 years has provided care to developing nations. He is a world leader in the biosciences and in developing solutions to multinational health concerns. Project HOPE is based in Millwood, Va.

A surgeon and educator, the Fayetteville, N.C.-based Steffes serves as chief executive officer of the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons. His organization uses rural mission hospitals, volunteer surgeons and missionaries to teach the best practices of surgery.

Hussain, of Maumee, is being honored for his career as a thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon in the Toledo area and as a volunteer medical teacher for more than 30 years throughout the world. He holds an emeritus professorship in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery in the UT College of Medicine and is a member of the UT Board of Trustees.

All of the awardees will be in attendance.

The four physicians also will speak at the 11th annual Health-Care Missions Symposium, “Medical Education Across the Nations,” that will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in Health Education Building Room 110 on Health Science Campus.

For more information, contact Dan Saevig, UT associate vice president of alumni relations, at 419.530.4008.

This entry was posted  on  Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at  5:46 am and is filed under  Events, UToday.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.  You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.