AMA Foundation Honors Chief Surgeon at SFGH

San Francisco General Hospital Surgeon William Schecter, MD, has won the 2006 Pride in the Profession Award for his work providing free low-risk outpatient operations to the uninsured in the San Francisco Bay Area. Presented by the American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation, the award is made to four domestic physicians who aid in underserved populations in the United States. The AMA Foundation presents the award in association with the Pfizer Medical Humanities Initiative. The award will be presented to Schecter on Sunday, March 12, at the 2006 Excellence in Medicine Awards Ceremony preceding the National Advocacy Conference in Washington, DC. He is one of only four physicians to receive the award in 2006. Schecter is a professor of clinical surgery at the University of California at San Francisco (USCF), where he has received five UCSF Excellence in Teaching awards. Schecter is co-founder of Operation Access, in San Francisco, a nonprofit organization that provides donated ambulatory surgery care to low-income patients who are ineligible for health insurance. Operation Access has provided more than 1,850 free, low-risk outpatient operations to the uninsured in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Initially a partnership consisting of 15 medical volunteers, one hospital and seven clinics in San Francisco County, Operation Access has grown into an organization that includes more than 350 volunteer health care professionals who provide surgery at 16 participating hospitals in the Bay area. Patients are referred to Operation Access from more than 60 community clinics. Services have deterred more than $10.5 million in medical costs for uninsured patients, and the organization has donated medical services totaling more than $4 million. The Pride in the Profession Awards were created by the AMA to honor physicians who, through their service, have brought a sense of pride to the medical profession and whose actions promote the art and science of medicine and the advancement of public health. As the philanthropic arm of the American Medical Association, the AMA Foundation is committed to supporting programs in a broad range of health-related areas. For more information, please visit the website or call 312/464-4200. Source: American Medical Association Foundation