The Henry P. Russe, MD Citation

The Institute of Medicine of Chicago and Rush University Medical Center annually award the Henry P. Russe, MD, Citation for Exemplary Compassion in Healthcare. Henry P. Russe, MD served as Dean of Rush Medical College of Rush University Medical Center. He served five terms as President of The Institute of Medicine of Chicago during an extraordinary decade of personal and professional commitment to the advancement of medicine. In recognition of his contributions, the Trustees of Rush University Medical Center and The Institute of Medicine of Chicago have established the Henry P. Russe, MD Citation for Exemplary Compassion in Healthcare. This ongoing award demonstrates, as Dr. Russe exemplified, that humanitarianism must characterize the practice of medicine and medical education beyond the science, technology, and personal skillfulness essential in caring for the health of our fellow citizens.

2011 Recipient

Steven Whitman, PhD  

Dr Whitman is the current director and founder of the Sinai Urban Health Institute (SUHI), whose mission is to serve as a leading urban health research institute for eliminating health disparities through research, evaluation and community engagement. Trained as an epidemiologist and biostatistician, he received his PhD from Yale in 1969. In the ensuing years, he worked both in academia and public health departments. Since 2000, he moved to Sinai Hospital, an urban community hospital serving some of Chicago’s most marginalized patients, to pioneer SUHI, melding the tools of academic research with community based efforts to address Chicago’s racial and ethnic health disparities. Dr. Whitman has led SUHI’s research team, garnering over $20M of research and evaluation funding. In addition to over 20 publications, Dr Whitman was the lead author on the recent book, Urban Health: Combating Disparities with Local Data, published in Sept 2010 by Oxford University Press.  

 Dr Whitman’s compassion stems from his intolerance - intolerance of racism, intolerance of injustice, and his intolerance of a privileged society and health care system that devalues and excludes people who in some way don’t “measure up.” To deny people healthcare because they happen to be on the short end of life’s lottery – perhaps due to poverty, or lack of insurance, minority race or ethnicity, or the wrong citizenship – is simply unacceptable, and indeed incompatible with the notion of a civilized and humane society. Dr. Whitman is not afraid to speak truth to power, and has been doing so for years. He often ruffles feathers along the way, but is dogged in his efforts to use SUHI’s meticulous research to expose the institutional racism and egregious inequities underlying the health disparities we see in Chicago. At the end of the day, Dr Whitman and SUHI give voice to some of Chicago’s most marginalized, disempowered, and disadvantaged populace. His life is a model of humanitarianism in action.

 Dr. Whitman’s influence is felt both directly, in the translatable products of SUHI’s work that model creative approaches to major health and health care issues, and in his vision for public health at its best.  Whether it’s a community health worker going door to door empowering diabetic patients in Humboldt Park, a breast cancer navigator helping an uninsured Hispanic woman get treatment, a partnership with HUD housing to address asthma triggers in Lawndale, or a joint venture with a local community grocer to bring health foods to the community, SUHI’s work is palpably felt in the communities it serves. But at the end of the day, the greatest influence on the wider community is how Dr Whitman is redefining the power and influence public health methods can have in service of a more just, compassionate, equitable, and sensible health care system.

 IOMC is honored to name Dr. Steven Whitman the 2011 recipient of the Russe Citation for Exemplary Compassion in Health Care. 

Past Recipients of the Henry P. Russe, MD Citation

• 2010 David G. McLone, MD, PhD
• 2009 Judith M. Haasis, ACSW, MSSW
• 2008 Maria I. Brown, DO
• 2007 Mardge Hillary Cohen, MD
• 2006 Dharmapuri Vidyasagar, MD
• 2005 Warren W. Furey, MD
• 2004 Angelos P. Creticos, MD
• 2004 David W. Cugell, MD
• 2003 Arthur G. Jones, MD
• 2002 Arnold L. Widen, MD
• 2001 Henry Betts, MD
• 2001 Joanne G. Schwartzberg, MD
• 2000 Edward A. Lichter, MD
• 1999 Sister Sheila Lyne, RSM
• 1998 Quentin D. Young, MD
• 1997 James R. Webster, Jr., MD
• 1996 Dudley Childress, PhD
• 1996 Serafino Garella, MD
• 1995 Whitney W. Addington, MD
• 1994 Ruth M. Rothstein
• 1993 Harry J. Miller, MD