UK's Noonan to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

Contact: Mary Margaret Colliver, (859) 361-1887

FOR RELEASE

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 5, 2008) −The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Dr. Jacqueline A. Noonan, a pediatric cardiologist at UK HealthCare's Kentucky Children's Hospital, at the third annual Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. National Physician of the Year Awards on March 18, 2008 at The Manhattan Center in New York City. Noonan is professor emeritus of pediatrics, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Cardiology.

Noonan will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for her 50 years of work caring for children with heart disease. Noonan, one of the most important individuals in the history of American pediatric care, is internationally known for her description and characterization in 1962 of the genetic disorder now called Noonan Syndrome. For many years, Noonan chaired the UK Department of Pediatrics and helped establish the Kentucky Children’s Hospital. To honor Noonan, an endowed chair was established: the Jacqueline A. Noonan Children’s Miracle Network Endowed Chair in Pediatric Research. Noonan was one of the original UK faculty members hired when the UK College of Medicine opened and treated the very first patient admitted to the UK Albert B. Chandler Hospital. The patient was a child and Noonan treated her for a heart problem.

“Dr. Noonan has done more to impact the health of Kentucky’s children than anyone else in the history of the Commonwealth," said Dr. Tim Bricker, professor and chair, UK Department of Pediatrics, and physician-in-chief, Kentucky Children’s Hospital. “Her impact upon pediatric care nationally and internationally has been profound. We are keenly aware of our responsibility to continue the level of patient care, teaching and investigation at Kentucky Children’s Hospital that she established here.”

Noonan taught and mentored many medical students and residents for more than 40 years, many of whom have had distinguished careers dedicated to improving the health of Kentucky’s children.

She continues to care for pediatric heart patients throughout Central and Eastern Kentucky, many from families whom she has cared for over several generations. Noonan is still active in the community and is noted as a kind, gentle person.

Dr. Robert W. Schrier, professor and a past chairman, Department of Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and University of Colorado Hospital, will also receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for his work devoted to clinical management of and research in kidney disease. He also has been president of the Association of American Physicians, the American Society of Nephrology, the National Kidney Foundation, and the International Society of Nephrology.
The keynote speaker at the award ceremony will be the Honorable Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, founding dean and first president of Morehouse School of Medicine, chairman of the board of the National Health Museum in Washington, D.C. and chairman of the Sullivan Alliance on Diversity in Healthcare Workforce. Dr. Hull Hayes, former president of E.M. Pharmaceuticals, a division of E. Merck of Germany and former FDA commissioner, will be the master of ceremonies for the evening.

Suzanne and Bob Wright, co-Founders of Autism Speaks™, will receive this year’s National Health Leadership Award for their dedication in increasing awareness of autism and raising money to fund autism research. They launched the foundation, Autism Speaks™, in February 2005 to help find a cure by raising funds to facilitate and quicken the pace of research, to raise public awareness of autism and to advocate for the needs of affected families.

Dr. Robert W. Carlson, Stanford University Medical Center - Stanford Cancer Center; Dr. Stanley Chang, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, Edward S. Harkness Eye Institute; and Dr. Dade Lunsford, The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center – Presbyterian, will each receive the Clinical Excellence Award, designed to recognize physicians who exemplify excellence in clinical medical practice.

Physicians profiled in the Castle Connolly guides were selected following an extensive nomination, research and screening process, which involves soliciting nominations from tens of thousands of doctors across the United States each year. Those very same outstanding Castle Connolly "Top Doctors" were involved in the nomination process to identify the recipients for the Castle Connolly awards for clinical excellence and lifetime achievement.

The mission of Kentucky Children's Hospital is to improve the lives and health of children and to provide a more optimistic future for their families. Families throughout Kentucky know the hospital as a place for both routine and specialized services, from well-child care to life-saving care. In 1997 UK Chandler Hospital built Central Kentucky’s first hospital dedicated exclusively to the needs of children and its primary mission continues today - to make the child and the family the first consideration.

For more information about Kentucky Children's Hospital, call Loralyn Cecil at (859) 257-1106 or go to http://www.ukhealthcare.uky.edu/KCH/index.asp

Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. is America’s trusted source for identifying top doctors. Founded in 1991 by John K. Castle (chairman), and John J. Connolly (president and CEO), who served as board chairman, and president and CEO of New York Medical College, respectively, its mission is to help consumers find the best health care. They achieve that mission through their consumer books – such as America’s Top Doctors® – their Web site and various consumer and business-oriented print and online partnerships. Under the direction of its physician-lead research team, Castle Connolly surveys tens of thousands of physicians and hospital executives in order to identify, screen and, ultimately, select those physicians regarded by their peers as leaders - among the very best – in their specialties and for specific diseases and techniques. The members of the management team include Dr. Jean Morgan, vice-president and chief medical and research officer, and William Liss-Levinson, vice-president and chief strategy and operations officer. Castle Connolly’s valuable top doctors information can also be found online at www.castleconnolly.com and on other affiliated Websites. Or call Terese Cecilia, Castle Connolly Medical Ltd., at (212) 367-8400, ext. 35.

In striving to become a Top 20 public research institution, the University of Kentucky is a catalyst for a new Commonwealth – a Kentucky that is healthier, better educated, and positioned to compete in a global and changing economy. For more information about UK’s efforts to become a Top 20 university, please go to http://www.uky.edu/OPBPA/Top20.html

To make an appointment or find a physician, please call UK HealthCare at 859-257-1000 or toll free 1-800-333-8874.
Copyright © 2007, University of Kentucky, 800 Rose St., Lexington, Kentucky, USA 40536.

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