Earning one of the UA College of Medicine – Tucson highest honors, Frank G. Walter, MD, MD, FACEP, FACMT, FAACT and UA Department of Emergency Medicine (DEM) professor was recognized for excellence in innovation in medical education.
Dr. Walter, was recognized with one of the college’s highest teaching awards, the Excellence in Innovation in Medical Education Teaching Award. He is the director of the DEM’s Knowledge Transfer Research Collaboration and is chair of the DEM’s Promotion
and Tenure Committee.
Each year in November, the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson and its members of the Academy of Medical Education Scholars (AMES) promote excellence in teaching and educational scholarship by recognizing outstanding educators during the Faculty Teaching Awards and the Vernon and Virginia Furrow Awards ceremony.
The ceremony, held on Thursday, November 14, recognized individual faculty, housestaff, rural health preceptors and volunteer physicians for their particularly noteworthy accomplishments as teachers.
During the ceremony, Lisa R. Stoneking, MD, assistant professor at the DEM was awarded a 2013 AMES Grants for Medical Education Research Award for the creation of a novel medical Spanish immersion curriculum. Read more on Dr, Stoneking's grant here.
The ceremony also recognized administrative and clinical support staff who have made a valuable and appreciated impact on college life through their interactions with students, faculty
and others.
Dr. Walter was nominated by DEM department head Samuel M. Keim, MD, MS, DEM professor Harvey W. Meislin, MD, FACEP, FAAEM, and Kurt Denninghoff, MD, Distinguished Professor of Emergency Medicine, for his role in creating the Advanced Hazmat Life Support Program (AHLS).
The AHLS was originally developed by Dr. Walter as part of the College of Medicine Dean’s Teaching Scholar Project in 1998. Since then, this innovative medical education program has been taught to more than 15,000 medical providers in more than 65 countries.
The program’s idea, goals, materials, teaching techniques, assessment modalities and process improvement are the conception of Dr. Walter, who has been a “franchise” educator in the DEM, the college, the specialty of emergency medicine and the specialty of medical toxicology for twenty years.
AHLS, a program that consists of six different courses was co-founded by Dr. Meislin and is considered the most comprehensive training program and provides the critical skills necessary to effectively treat victims exposed to all aspects of hazardous material in the world.
The key ingredients include a 500-page course manual (in its fourth edition) and extensive visual aid slides, an online course, an online re-verification program for students and slide guides for training others to teach the course.
Currently, the material is being translated in Japanese, Spanish, German and Portuguese with plans soon for Chinese.
Congratulations to Dr. Walter for his contributions to teaching excellence!