The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology has named the recipients for its Distinguished Scientist Award and Healthcare Administrator Award.
Sanjay Saint, MD, was given the Distinguished Scientist Award, which recognizes APIC members who have made significant and sustained contributions to infection prevention science and who exemplify scholarly excellence and infection prevention leadership within the scientific community.
Dr. Saint is a professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the director of the VA/University of Michigan Patient Safety Enhancement Program and the chief of medicine at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.
Dr. Saint is also a national leader in preventing catheter-associated urinary tract infections and currently serves on the leadership team of a federally funded program that aims to reduce CAUTIs across the United States. He has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed papers, been a visiting professor at more than 50 universities and hospitals in the United States, Europe and Japan; and has active research studies underway with investigators in Switzerland, Italy, Japan, Australia and Thailand.
Meanwhile, William J. Maples, MD, was named the 2015 recipient of the APIC Healthcare Administrator Award, which is given annually to a member of a healthcare facility's executive team who champions infection prevention efforts within his or her organization.
Dr. Maples is currently CMO for Professional Research Consultants and executive director for The Institute for Healthcare Excellence in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Prior to his current roles, Dr. Maples served as chief quality officer and senior vice president at Mission Health System in Asheville, N.C., from December 2010 to March 2015.
Under his leadership at Mission Health, the infection prevention department grew from five infection preventionists at one hospital to a systemwide department that now includes 12 IPs and spans seven hospitals. Dr. Maples also instituted weekly leadership rounds to discuss successes and barriers in achieving the goal of harm reduction, committed resources to prevention of surgical site infections and implemented a number of IP process improvements, including training in root cause analysis
Both the Distinguished Scientist Award and Healthcare Administrator Award were presented at APIC's 42nd Annual Conference in Nashville, Tenn.
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