UW News

December 6, 2007

American College of Physicians state chapter honors Paauw

Douglas S. Paauw, professor of medicine and head of the Section of General Internal Medicine at UW Medical Center, has received the American College of Physicians (ACP) Washington Chapter’s Laureate Award. The award honors ACP fellows and masters who have demonstrated a commitment to excellence in medical care, education, and research and who have provided service to their communities, their region, and the college. Paauw is a past governor of the Washington Chapter.

Paauw holds the Rathmann Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Patient-Centered Clinical Education. He is department coordinator for student teaching and clerkship coordinator and has served on numerous School of Medicine and Department of Medicine committees. He has published more than 50 textbook chapters and CME materials on a wide range of topics in internal medicine as well as research on physician performance.

He was cited for the Laureate Award as a “consummate educator, a teacher’s teacher” with a “legendary commitment to medical students.” Washington Chapter Governor W. Hugh Maloney wrote of Paauw, “He is a long-standing and loyal supporter of the College, has rendered distinguished service to the chapter, and has upheld the high ideals and professional standards for which the College is known.”

He has received frequent recognition for teaching and service to the profession, including a UW Distinguished Teaching Award, four School of Medicine Distinguished Teaching Awards, the Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award from Alpha Omega Alpha/AAMC, the Clinician-Teacher Award of Excellence from the Society of General Internal Medicine, the Paul Beeson Teaching Award, the Outstanding Educational Program Development Award from the Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine, and a University of Michigan Alumni Society Early Career Distinguished Achievement Award, among many other honors. He is also a past nominee for the AAMC Humanism in Medicine Award. He is now a UW School of Medicine Teacher Superior in Perpetuity.

A graduate of the University of Michigan School of Medicine, Paauw was a resident in medicine at UW and served as chief resident at Harborview in 1988-89. He joined the faculty of the Department of Medicine in 1990 and was appointed to the Rathmann Chair in 2000.