UW News

January 8, 2009

Best of 2008: UW Medicine

Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering


On the heels of news that Washington has moved up to the 10th healthiest state in the nation, according to the United Health Foundation, UW physicians and researchers are also making their mark on some top health-related lists for 2008.

Several UW physicians were recently recognized in Women’s Health in a feature on the nation’s best medical doctors for women. Daniel Berg, Dermatology, and Irl B. Hirsch, Medicine, made the list as well as David Eschenbach and Barbara Goff, Obstetrics/Gynecology; Carol Teitz, Orthopaedics; and Peter Roy-Byrne, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences.

In addition, UW professor Adam Drewnowski, Epidemiology and Medicine, and director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition, is on Fitness magazine’s Fit 50: The best breakthroughs in food. Drewnowski is singled out by the magazine for his work on creating a ranking system for foods based on nutrients and calories. “At a time when the obesity rate is sky-high, we need people like Adam Drewnowski,” Fitness writers say.

Earlier this year, Harborview Medical Center received the 2007 Foster G. McGaw Prize, which honors a health-care organization that provides innovative programs that significantly improve the health and well being of the community. The prize and related $100,000 award is one of the most esteemed honors in health care and is sponsored by the American Hospital Association, Baxter International Foundation and Cardinal Health Foundation.

UW Medical Center also received high honors this year, and was ranked 10th in U.S. News & World Report’s 2008 publication of America’s Best Hospitals. The medical center moved up from its 2007 ranking of 11th best hospital in the country. UWMC has been rated among the top U.S. hospitals since U.S. News began rankings in 1990. Some services that fall under this ranking are based at both UWMC and Harborview Medical Center.