Newsletters

POSTED: April 29th, 2019
POSTED IN: EM Pulse - The Official Newsletter of MOCEP, March/April 2019,

Lawrence (Larry) Lewis, MD, FACEP, was selected to receive the 2019 Missouri College of Emergency Physicians’ (MOCEP) Lifetime Achievement Award. He was nominated by Douglas Char, MD FACEP, and Brian Bausano, MD FACEP, all of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The award will be presented to Dr. Lewis at the MOCEP Annual General Membership Meeting on May 22, 2019, in St. Louis.

Dr. Lewis came to Washington University in 1995 on a mission. His vision on taking over as the Chief of Emergency Medicine was to create not only a center for EM excellence but a self-sustaining training program to supply the region and eventually the state (and now nation/world) with EM trained/boarded physicians. He successfully assembled all the pieces to make this vision a reality. Twenty-five years later, his shared vision has not only come to fruition, but the roots of EM he helped plant have grown a greater and more long-lasting yield of Emergency Medicine than any could have imagined. The incredible long reach of his leadership and contributions are felt all across this state.  

Dr. Lewis was instrumental in the creation of MOCEP and served as President during its early years from 1997-1999.  He served on the Board of Directors for 18 years. Many of the current board consider Larry to be a mentor.  He founded and was inaugural president of the St. Louis Emergency Physicians Association (1989-1995). He worked to get emergency medicine recognized as a valuable contributor to medical care in our state by joining the St. Louis Metropolitan Medical Society and the Missouri State Medical Association.  He was one of the earliest ABEM Oral Examiners from Missouri.

Dr. Lewis has helped put the national spotlight on Missouri through his service to SAEM, ACEP, their respective scientific journals editorial boards and multiple other national venues for Emergency Medicine academic advancement. As one of the first academic emergency physicians in the state, he brought a researcher’s eye to clinical problems. He reviewed research grants for MOCEP for 10 years as part of the Grants and Awards committee. The Washington University Emergency Care Research Core, founded in 2017, grew out of his desire to create a robust emergency medicine research center – the first in the state.  He, along with leaders from Missouri Emergency Medical Services Association, the Missouri Ambulance Association and the Missouri Emergency Nurses Association, conceived of and organized the Combined Clinical Conference on Emergency Care.  This annual conference ran for 24 consecutive years until 2010.  His involvement at the national level through SAEM and ACEP helped put Missouri on the map in terms of Emergency Medicine.  He was honored by ACEP in 2012 with the John Rupke Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2017 received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.  

It is the honor of MOCEP to provide our 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award to an outstanding emergency department physician. Criteria to be nominated for this award require the nominee to be a MOCEP member who has at least 25 years of service to emergency medicine, has devoted their professional life to the improvement of this specialty, and has played an active role in MOCEP.

To learn more about the Lifetime Achievement Award, or MOCEP, please visit www.MOCEP.org. The Missouri College of Emergency Physicians (MOCEP) is a not for profit organization created to support and advocate for emergency medicine physicians practicing in the state of Missouri. MOCEP is a state chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP).

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