Doctor, med society executive honored for decades of service

• INTERIM MEETING 2008
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Orlando, Fla. -- Colorado anesthesiologist James Arens, MD, has long been an advocate within his specialty for patient safety. For his commitment to medicine, Dr. Arens received the 2008 Distinguished Service Award, the AMA's highest honor.

Since 1991, Dr. Arens has chaired the American Society of Anesthesiologists' Committee on Practice Parameters. Under his leadership, the committee has developed standards and guidelines that reduced anesthesia-related mortality and led to widespread recognition of anesthesiology's approach to improving patient care and safety, the AMA said.

"Improving patient safety is a top priority of the AMA, and Dr. Arens' commitment to this field has led to real improvements for our patients," AMA President Nancy H. Nielsen, MD, PhD, said in a statement.

Dr. Arens served on the boards of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation and the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research. He also was a professor and chair of anesthesiology for 42 years, training generations of physicians at five medical schools in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. He retired from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in January.

"I'm proud of each and every one," Dr. Arens said of his students when he accepted the award. "This has never been work but always a joy."

Also during the meeting, the AMA honored D. Brent Mulgrew, executive director of the Ohio State Medical Assn., with the 2008 Medical Executive Lifetime Achievement Award. The award honors a society leader who has contributed to the goals and ideals of the medical profession during a significant term of service.

Mulgrew started more than three decades of service at the OSMA as an attorney monitoring legislative issues and demonstrated a keen aptitude for medical policy development, the AMA said. He served as OSMA's legal counsel and managing director, becoming executive director in 1992.

"His talent, commitment and appreciation for the role of medical societies have served Ohio well," AMA Board of Trustees Chair Joseph M. Heyman, MD, said in a statement. "Brent successfully led OSMA's efforts to preserve patients' access to physicians and enhance quality health care by pushing Ohio legislation that fixed the broken medical liability system and reformed the managed care industry."