PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Hospital medical staff honored Leonard Mermel, a doctor of osteopathy who joined the hospital staff in 1991, with the 2016 Milton Hamolsky Outstanding Physician Award, the hospital reported. Mermel is medical director of the hospital’s department of epidemiology and infection control.
The Milton Hamolsky Outstanding Physician Award is presented each year to a doctor who has made exceptional contributions to patient care and leadership. The late Dr. Milton Hamolsky was an endocrinologist who joined Rhode Island Hospital in 1963 and served as its first full-time physician-in-chief. Hamolsky, chief administrative officer of the Rhode Island Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline, was a recognized medical education leader in Rhode Island.
“Mermel is a world leader in epidemiology of hospital-acquired infections, most specifically as it relates to catheter-associated bloodstream infections. He has a remarkable background with more than 100 peer-reviewed publications … [and] has represented the hospital and Brown University faculty in myriad national and international meetings,” Dr. Jorge Albina, who nominated Mermel for the award, said in a statement. Albina added that Mermel was a tremendous resource to Rhode Island Hospital and the entire Lifespan system on issues related to several infectious diseases, including Ebola and H1N1 (swine flu).
“The benefits of Mermel’s expertise have had a direct impact not only on our hospital community and our state, but across the nation and in the global health community,” Dr. Latha Sivaprasad, chief medical officer of Rhode Island Hospital, said in the statement.
Mermel, a Barrington resident, is also a professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and adjunct clinical professor at the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy. He has served in the capacity of an expert adviser for many public-sector entities, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as well as national bodies in Switzerland, Ireland, Israel, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Mermel, a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, holds a doctor of osteopathy degree from the University of Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences in Des Moines, Iowa and a Master of Science degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore, Md.
