Streips, Loyd honored for academic excellence
Uldis Streips, Ph.D., and Gary Loyd, M.D.
Two University of Louisville faculty members, Uldis Streips, Ph.D., and Gary Loyd, M.D., have been honored for academic excellence as part of a new School of Medicine program called the Master Educator Awards.
The awards were created at the direction of interim dean Laura Schweitzer, Ph.D., to recognize excellence in medical education, scholarship and leadership; to promote interdisciplinary teaching; and to reward faculty development, said Ruth Greenberg, Ph.D., director of academic programs for the school.
Streips, a professor of microbiology and immunology, received the Distinguished Educator Award in recognition of his singular commitment to teaching excellence, said Ronald Elin, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Pathology in the School of Medicine and chair of the awards selection committee.
Streips has been instrumental in the development of undergraduate medical education curricula, including the highly regarded Medical Microbiology and Immunology course and the Excellence in Basic Sciences program, Elin said.
The latter effort places students in an integrated learning environment and challenges them to think critically about hypothetical cases by employing a socratic teaching method.
Streips will receive a $10,000 salary supplement as part of the five-year honor.
"If you look at the large number of teaching honors Dr. Streips has won through the years, you clearly understand that he's achieved the level of superior performer in the field of education," Elin said.
Gary Loyd was similarly honored with the Outstanding Educator Award for his academic achievements, which include playing a key role in the development of UofL's Human Patient Simulation Center.
Loyd, a professor of anesthesiology and acting assistant dean for education, received a $2,000 salary supplement. An additional $1,000 was awarded to the Department of Anesthesiology for educational activities.
"Dr. Loyd's success in building a simulation clinic here has just been outstanding," Elin said.
The state-of-the-art facility is one of the largest at any academic medical center in the United States, with four training suites featuring classrooms, videotaping equipment and life-like, computer-controlled mannequins that realistically mimic human responses.
The simulators give students hands-on experience in a variety of scenarios, including emergency situations, without compromising the safety of a real patient.
For each patient scenario, instructors can program a simulator on three levels. First, they can select a basic patient profile, including physiological condition. Second, they can superimpose a series of responses indicating the course of a disease or injury. Third, they can specify "what-if" consequences based on the actions of a student.
Each choice made by the instructor or student is recorded by a computer and can be replayed on a monitor.
Innovations like the simulation center and the Excellence in Basic Sciences program are, Elin said, what set UofL apart from other medical schools.
"Both Dr. Streips and Dr. Loyd exemplify the outstanding faculty we have in the School of Medicine," he said. "The committee was very extremely pleased with their achievements."
