Meet the 2018 Immunization Champion Award Winners
New for ACOG in 2018, the Immunization Champion Award recognizes members who have demonstrated exceptional progress in increasing immunization rates among women. The award is intended to recognize ob-gyns who are doing an exemplary job of going above and beyond to educate patients and other providers, as well as increasing access to immunizations in their practice, communities, and the nation. This year ACOG recognizes the hard work and dedication of three selected members who exemplify ACOG’s guidance on immunization for women: Dr. Linda O’Neal Eckert maintains a clinical practice in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington, Harborview Medical Center, where she is a professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and adjunct professor in the Global Health Department. She leads vaccine education programs in her university and community, and serves on the Washington State Department of Health Vaccine Council as the only ob-gyn. She is on ACOG’s Immunization, Infectious Disease, & Public Health Preparedness Expert Work Group, and works as a consultant to the World Health Organization. She is also a consultant to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in policy and implementation tool development for maternal immunization, and the HPV vaccine. Dr. Meryl Grimaldi, Vice Chair of St. Barnabas Hospital Ob-Gyn, is an ob-gyn generalist working in a safety net Bronx Hospital that cares for a large, multicultural, medically underserved population. This setting allows Dr. Grimaldi to provide health prevention and vaccination to many patients and their families, with a comprehensive program of preconception, prenatal and postpartum vaccination as its standard of care. Outreach to educate and vaccinate the families of pregnant and at-risk patients is a current interest and area of work. Dr. Sangini S. Sheth is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine. She is a graduate of Yale College and received her medical degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She completed her obstetrics and gynecology residency training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Sangini has been using dissemination and implementation science methods to successfully improve HPV vaccine utilization among patients of Yale New Haven Hospital’s obstetrics and gynecology clinic in outpatient and inpatient postpartum settings.
Sangini has been using dissemination and implementation science methods to successfully improve HPV vaccine utilization among patients of Yale New Haven Hospital’s obstetrics and gynecology clinic in outpatient and inpatient postpartum settings.