A group of Baylor College of Medicine faculty members received the college’s Master Clinician and Rising Star Clinician Awards for excellence in patient care at a May 14 ceremony.

The awards were established by Baylor President, CEO and Executive Dean Dr. Paul Klotman to recognize faculty for their exemplary qualities of clinical excellence and expertise, consistent high level of patient care, professionalism, commendable leadership skills and continuous service to the community.

The Master Clinician Award is for full professors with 15 or more years of clinical service at Baylor, while the Rising Star Clinician Award recognizes assistant and associate professors with at least five years of clinical service.

After an introduction by Dr. Alicia Monroe, Baylor provost and senior vice president for academic and faculty affairs, the awards were presented by Klotman and Dr. Thomas Wheeler, chair of pathology & immunology at Baylor, who served as chair of the Master Clinician and Rising Star Clinician selection committee.

“These awards are important to me personally, and they are also important to Baylor College of Medicine,” Klotman said. “At the end of the day, how we take care of patients is what differentiates us from others.”

2015 Master Clinician Lifetime Award recipients:

John H. Coverdale, M.D., The Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy

John A. Goss, M.D., Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery and Chief of the Division of Abdominal Transplantation

James M. Killian, M.D., Department of Neurology

Daniel M. Musher, M.D., The Margaret M. and Albert B. Alkek Department of Medicine and Molecular Virology & Microbiology

George E. Taffet, M.D., The Margaret M. and Albert B. Alkek Department of Medicine

2015 Rising Star Clinician Award recipients

Carla M. Davis, M.D., Departments of Pediatrics – Allergy and Immunology

Hafeez Diwan, M.D., Departments of Pathology & Immunology and Dermatology

Karen Eldin, M.D., Department of Pathology & Immunology

Panos Kougias, M.D., Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery

Richard E. Link, M.D., Ph.D., Scott Department of Urology

Sreedhar Mandayam, M.D., The Margaret M. and Albert B. Alkek Department of Medicine

Sandesh C.S. Nagamani, M.D., Department of Molecular and Human Genetics

Olutoyin A. Olutoye, M.D., Department of Pediatrics – Anesthesiology

Nalini Ram, M.D., The Margaret M. and Albert B. Alkek Department of Medicine

Asim A. Shah, M.D., The Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Lakshmi V. Srivaths, M.D., Department of Pediatrics – Hematology and Oncology

Peter I. Tsai, M.D., Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery

Mitchell P. Weikert, M.S., Department of Ophthalmology

Marc H. Willis, D.O., Department of Radiology

Laila E. Woc-Colburn, M.D., The Margaret M. and Albert B. Alkek Department of Medicine and National School of Tropical Medicine

Sarvari Yellapragada, M.D., The Margaret M. and Albert B. Alkek Department of Medicine, Michael E. DeBakey Veteran Affairs Medical Center and Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center