Internal medicine names 2023 research award winners

IM Advocacy Awards

The internal medicine department's 2023 Advocacy Award recipients were announced May 18. Awards recognize excellence in advocacy in the public interest.

Marcus Snow, MD, assistant professor in the division of rheumatology, received the faculty Advocacy Award for his work with the American College of Rheumatology. Dr. Snow has served as chair of the ACR Committee on Rheumatologic Care since 2020. He has co-authored the ACR’s guidelines for the increased use of biosimilars and the COVID guidelines for patients with rheumatic disease. He has also led the Nebraska Rheumatology Society since its 2017 inception and serves as a mentor to trainees and junior faculty.

Natasha Gallett, MD, third year med-peds resident, received the House Officer Advocacy Award. Dr. Gallett has established a continuity clinic experience for adolescent health care; recruits patients from the LGBTQIA+ population; and provides gender-affirming care. She also created an LGBTQIA+ curriculum for residents, has testified before the Nebraska legislature against bills that would ban gender-affirming care and is a member of Nebraska Medicine’s Trauma Informed Care & Culture task force.

Natasha Hongsermeier-Graves, MD, a recently graduated UNMC medical student, received departmental recognition for leading efforts to eliminate the use of the race-based eGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate) calculation at Nebraska Medicine. After two years of these efforts, Nebraska Medicine recently changed to an eGFR calculation that doesn’t include race.