Media contacts:
Alicia Sands Lurry, 404/616-6389, alurry@emory.edu
October 30, 2002


 



Emory Neonatologist To Receive Lifetime Achievement Award from Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics



Alfred W. Brann, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the Emory University School of Medicine and neonatologist at Grady Memorial Hospital, will receive the 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Crowne Plaza Ravinia Hotel in Atlanta. The award is given annually to a physician for his or her work in the field of pediatrics. Dr. Brann will receive the award on behalf of his outstanding work and achievements in neonatal and perinatal medicine throughout the state of Georgia, and across the world.



Dr. Brann said he is especially honored to receive this award, which is given by a committee of peers each year.

"Awards that are given by people with whom you work everyday are the most meaningful," Dr. Brann said. "Awards like this provide mirrors of yourself that are never available to you as you go about doing what you enjoy."

William R. Sexson, M.D., associate dean for clinical affairs at Grady Hospital and vice chairman in the Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, was one of the physicians who nominated Dr. Brann for the award. The nomination was based on Dr. Brann's outstanding work in neonatal medicine and his unceasing efforts to improve infant mortality rates.

"Dr. Brann is a tremendous ambassador for the neonate and an asset to universal perinatal care," Dr. Sexson said. "He has done more than any physician I know to improve the care of pregnant women and their babies in Atlanta, the state of Georgia, and throughout the world."

During his tenure as chairman of the Committee on Fetus and Newborns of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Brann helped create the first edition of the joint AAP-ACOG publication, Guidelines for Prenatal Care, which is now used as a national instrument to improve infant mortality.

A crusader for reproductive health, Dr. Brann is director of the Atlanta-based World Health Organization/Collaborating Center (WHO/CC) in Reproductive Health. The center, created in 1981, is a partnership between Emory's Woodruff Health Sciences Center, the Centers for Disease Control and the Georgia Department of Human Resources and was created to analyze and improve reproductive outcomes in the state of Georgia. The Collaborating Center now works throughout the world by enabling health professionals in universities, state departments of health and ministries of health to assess, develop, and implement a perinatal health surveillance system and appropriate health services to improve reproductive outcomes.

Dr. Brann has also worked with the Carter Center of Emory University and its Task Force on Child Survival, the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and Project HOPE. He has worked to improve reproductive outcomes in several countries, including China, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, the Republic of Georgia, Cuba and Russia.

During his academic career, Dr. Brann has served as the director of the divisions of Neonatal/Perinatal Medicine, both at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (1969-1975), and Emory University (1975-1990). While at the University of Mississippi, Dr. Brann developed a rural regional referral network, and Emory University School of Medicine, he developed the statewide regional referral system and the Angel II transport network.

At Emory University, Dr. Brann and Dr. Luella Klein were the initial co-directors of the Emory Regional Perinatal Center. Dr. Brann and Dr. Klein currently lead the Interpregnancy Care Project at Grady Hospital. The project is designed to develop strategies for women at Grady who have had very low-birth-weight babies.

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