Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education to honor LA BioMed researcher

Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education to honor Dr. Christian de Virgilio

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education will honor Christian de Virgilio, MD, a principal investigator at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed), with its Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award for Program Director Excellence at its 2011 awards ceremony in Nashville, Tenn.

The Council said it presents the award to program directors who have found "innovative ways to teach residents to provide quality health care." The Courage to Teach Award is named in honor of Parker J. Palmer, a writer and traveling teacher who works independently on issues in education, community, spirituality and social change. The Council will honor Dr. de Virgilio at a March 4, 2011 ceremony in Nashville.

"Congratulations to Dr. de Virgilio on this honor and the many years of exceptional education and training he has provided for residents and medical students," said LA BioMed President and CEO David I. Meyer, PhD. "Education and training are part of LA BioMed's and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center's core missions, and we are fortunate to have such a dedicated and gifted educator on staff to train the next generation of physicians."

Dr. de Virgilio is a nine-time winner of the Golden Apple Teaching Award from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (1998, 2000-2006, and 2008). He was named the American Medical Student Association National Faculty Teacher of the Year in 2007 and Faculty Teacher of the Year at Harbor-UCLA in 1996. He received honorary induction into Alpha Omega Alpha by the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA Class of 2001. In addition, he received the Award for Excellence in Education from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in 2004.

He serves as the Vice Chair of Education and the Director of the General Surgery Residency Program at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Co-Chair, College of Applied Anatomy and Professor of Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. de Virgilio received his B.S. degree in biology from Loyola Marymount University and his MD from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He completed his General Surgery Residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and a Vascular Surgery Fellowship at the Mayo Clinic. He returned to Harbor-UCLA as a faculty member after completing his fellowship in 1993.

From a research perspective, Dr. de Virgilio has authored or co-authored 85 publications in peer-reviewed journals. He has served as a research mentor for 20 undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students and residents over the last 10 years. His current areas of research interest are diverse and include cardiac risk in vascular surgery, improving resident education, timing of surgery in gallstone pancreatitis and recognition and management of necrotizing soft tissue infections.