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John Benson, M.D. |
The prizes are named after Dr. Benson, who worked at UNMC from 2003-2011. During that time, Dr. Benson spearheaded UNMC’s reaccreditation efforts in 2006, launched the popular “Music as Medicine” series, anchored the medical center’s health care reform initiative and fostered interprofessional education.
A legendary national figure in internal medicine, Dr. Benson served 16 years as the first president of the American Board of Internal Medicine, the key certifying body for all internists and subspecialists in internal medicine. In a UNMC Today article in 2011, he said his proudest accomplishment at the ABIM was implementing guidelines to ensure that physicians demonstrated professionalism and humanistic qualities.
In addition to his work with the ABIM, for more than two decades Dr. Benson taught medical students at UNMC and at the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, where he served on the Center for Ethics in Health Care. He received several honors for his work in medical education and clinical medicine and wrote extensively about professionalism.
Dr. Benson’s wife, Virginia Tilden, D.N.Sc., served as dean of the UNMC College of Nursing from 2003-2011. The couple moved back to the West Coast to be near their children and grandchildren.
This year’s three winning articles explored the pressing professionalism challenges facing physicians, including the relationship between physician satisfaction, well-being and quality of care, and how remediation approaches can be designed to foster professionalism behaviors.
The mission of the ABIM Foundation is to advance medical professionalism to improve the health care system.
Dr. Benson was a difference maker at UNMC. What a class act! The ABIM knew what it was doing naming an award after him.