YSM News and Recognition

Emily Powers, MD, MHS, is the most recent recipient of the Yale Pediatrics Department’s Award for Clinical Excellence, which honors exemplary clinicians who embody the department’s vision as a “healer, innovator, and collaborator.” As a clinical informaticist, Powers participated in the creation of clinical pathways and Epic dashboards that allow the department to implement clinical practices and measure improvements in real time across Yale New Haven Children's Hospital. In addition to her role as assistant professor of pediatrics (emergency medicine), Powers has served as director of medical informatics for the Department of Pediatrics and was named associate medical information officer for the Yale New Haven Health System.

Katherine McKenzie, MD, associate professor of medicine (general medicine), was honored for her work in asylum medicine by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) at their annual gala in New York City. In recognizing McKenzie, who is founder and director of the Yale Center for Asylum Medicine, PHR said: “As a leading medical expert, Dr. McKenzie has served as a frontline defender for asylum seekers and has trained hundreds of clinicians in the practice of asylum medicine. Dr. McKenzie is an exemplar of commitment and unwavering resolve to protecting human rights and the rights of asylum seekers and immigrants.”

Shilpa S. Murthy, MD, MPH, an early career investigator at Yale Cancer Center and assistant professor of surgery in the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery and Medical Oncology, has received a prestigious $1.1 million Career Development Award from the Department of Defense. Her project, “From Service to Survival: Investigating the Association Between Military Deployment and Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer Mortality in Veterans,” aims to understand why survival rates for younger patients with colorectal cancer are worse in the veteran population.

The American College of Emergency Physicians has awarded its Medical Directors Early Careerist Award to Suresh Pavuluri, MD, MPH, assistant professor and associate director of quality and patient safety in Yale’s Department of Emergency Medicine. This award applauds those who are early in their administrative leadership career as a medical director or assistant medical director. At Yale, Pavuluri partners with interdisciplinary teams to design and implement programs aimed at strengthening everyday reliability within the emergency department.

Thirty-three faculty-led teams presented new technologies for potential funding at the 2025 Yale Life Science Pitchfest on Dec. 4. The annual event serves as the semifinals for the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale, which supports the translation of groundbreaking research into new health care solutions. This year’s pitchfest drew over 630 attendees, including Yale researchers, biotechnology entrepreneurs, industry partners, and health care investors—marking the event’s largest audience to date. See the list of this year’s winning presenters.

Members of the Center for Breast Cancer and the Hematology Program at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital recently presented their latest research on two national stages: at the annual American Society of Hematology meeting and the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Read about the work they presented.

Kanika Jain, PhD, associate research scientist at the Yale Cardiovascular Research Center, has joined the editorial board of Circulation Research, a journal published by the American Heart Association (AHA). This appointment reflects Jain’s growing leadership in the field and her commitment to advancing cardiovascular research. She is currently the recipient of both the AHA Career Development Award and its Transformational Project Award.