Dr. Tomich to receive ACOG lifetime achievement award

Paul Tomich, M.D., emeritus professor, UNMC Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has been selected to receive the 2020 Luella Klein Lifetime Achievement Award from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). The award honors an obstetrician and gynecologist who has dedicated his or her life in a significant way to women’s health.

Dr. Tomich will be the ninth recipient of the award, which will be given at ACOG’s Annual Clinical and Scientific Meeting in Seattle on April 24-27.

Active in ACOG, Dr. Tomich served on the executive board from 1998-2001 and was named an ACOG fellow in 1982. He earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from Loyola University Chicago and served on the faculty there prior to joining UNMC in 2002.

As a board-certified maternal-fetal medicine physician, Dr. Tomich cared for high-risk obstetrics patients. He retired in 2017 after a 15-year career at UNMC, serving as director of UNMC’s division of maternal-fetal medicine from 2002-2014. On multiple occasions, he was recognized among “America’s Top Doctors” by Castle Connolly.

At the time of his retirement, he received high praise from Carl Smith, M.D., chair of the UNMC Department of OB/GYN and the Olson Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

“Dr. Tomich is one the finest ambassadors for obstetrics and gynecology and women’s health imaginable,” Dr. Smith said. “He develops long-lasting relationships with many students and residents in our discipline and serves as a superb role model.

“Unfailingly positive about our specialty, he also provides a realistic view of the opportunities and challenges in our discipline.”

Founded in 1951, ACOG has more than 58,000 members and is the specialty’s premier professional membership organization dedicated to the improvement of women’s health.

The award, which was started in 2011, is named after Luella Klein, M.D., who was the first woman president of ACOG and the first female department chair at Emory University School of Medicine.

Dr. Klein died earlier this year at the age of 94. An advocate for equality in health care for adolescent, low-income, incarcerated, and LGBTQI+ women, women of color, women with disabilities, women with HIV, and other underserved populations, Dr. Klein’s influence and contributions to ACOG and to the OB/GYN specialty continue to affect women’s health today.