Two Physicians at Emory University School of Medicine Are Honored
In New Exhibit at National Library of Medicine
A new National Institutes of Health (NIH) exhibit at the National Library
of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, highlights two physicians from Emory
University School of Medicine. Nanette K. Wenger, MD, professor of medicine,
and Flavia E. Mercado, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics, are featured
in the NIH exhibit "Changing the Face of Medicine," which honors the
lives and achievements of outstanding American women physicians.
The National Library of Medicine, the world’s largest medical library,
is located on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda,
Maryland.
The interactive exhibit, which opened to the public October 14 and will
continue through April 2, 2005, features stories from a diversity of
women physicians, past and present, throughout the country and in a
broad range of medical specialties. The exhibit chronicles the initial
struggles of women to attend medical school, their campaign for additional
professional training and other opportunities, and their many unique
and groundbreaking accomplishments throughout the years.
The exhibit’s companion website is http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine.
It includes a history of America’s women physicians and educational
and professional resources for those considering medicine as a career.
Website visitors can add stories about outstanding women physicians
they know.
Dr. Wenger was among the first physicians to focus on coronary heart
disease in women, and to evaluate the different risk factors and features
of the condition in women and men. She received her doctor of medicine
degree at Harvard Medical School in 1954 and began postgraduate work
at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. In 1958 she became a senior medical
resident at Emory University School of Medicine then a fellow in cardiology
before joining the Emory faculty. She was named a full professor in
1971. Dr. Wenger conducts her clinical practice at Grady Memorial Hospital,
where she is Chief of Cardiology.
She has served in major leadership roles on cardiovascular disease for
the World Health Organization (WHO). She was co-chair of the NIH National
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Conference on Cardiovascular Health
and Disease in Women in 1992 and has been listed in the Best Doctors
in America each year since 1994. In 1976 she was cited one of Time magazine’s
"Women of the Year." She received the American Medical Women’s Association’s
(AMWA) Women in Science President’s Award in 1993 and the Elizabeth
Blackwell Award, AMWA’s highest award, in 2000. She was named the American
Heart Association’s Physician of the Year in 1998.
In 1999, Dr. Wenger received the Distinguished Achievement Award from
the Scientific Councils of the American Heart Association and the American
Heart Association’s Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award. She was presented
the James D. Bruce Memorial Award of the American College of Physicians
in 2000. In 2001, the American Heart Association presented her the R.
Bruce Logue Award for Excellence in Medicine, and in 2002 she received
the Distinguished Fellow Award of the Society of Geriatric Cardiology.
Dr. Wenger has had a longstanding interest in geriatric cardiology,
and is a past president of the Society of Geriatric Cardiology and editor
of the American Journal of Geriatric Cardiology.
As a bilingual physician and educator, Dr. Mercado teaches the value
of cultural competency, which requires that physicians are aware of
cultural differences and treat all patients respectfully, an ideal she
instills in every medical student she teaches. Dr. Mercado is associate
director of the Department of Multicultural Affairs at Grady Health
System and is a pediatrician at the Emergency Department of Hughes Spalding
Children’s Hospital. She earned her doctor of medicine degree in 1988
from Emory University School of Medicine. She was an intern at Emory
Affiliated Hospitals, then a pediatric resident at Children’s National
Medical Center, George Washington University in Washington D.C. She
was in private practice in Maryland from 1991 to 1995 and served as
clinical professor at GWU Medical Center. From 1996 to 2002 she was
a pediatrician at Atlanta’s Lindbergh Children’s Center, the Whitefoord
Elementary School Clinic, and the Coan Middle School Clinic.
Dr. Mercado addresses problems that arise from English-only health care
providers delivering acute medical care to non-English-speaking patients.
In 1999 Dr. Mercado was selected for the Leadership Fellowship Program
of the National Hispanic Medical Association. She also was elected to
serve on the Executive Board of Cool Girls, Incorporated, a mentorship
and educational program for young girls from impoverished backgrounds.
She serves on the steering committee of the Hispanic Health Coalition
of Georgia and is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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