On April 25, Helena Chui, MD, chair and professor of neurology and Raymond and Betty McCarron Chair in Neurology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, received the first annual USC Excellence in Professionalism Award, an honor that Keck Medicine of USC bestows on someone who embodies the Keck Commitment’s guiding principles of excellence, judgment, kindness and respect.

Chui, who joined Keck Medicine in 1982 and is an expert in Alzheimer’s disease and vascular cognitive impairment research, received the award and high praise from Steven Giannotta, MD, chair and professor of neurological surgery and Dr. Martin Weiss Chair in Neurological Surgery.

“Regardless of the situation, Dr. Chui always has a calming demeanor that puts others at ease,” Giannotta said. “She advocates for her patients and she treats her clinical staff with the ultimate respect. She is valued by her peers for the exceptional medicine she practices every day. I can’t imagine a better person to inaugurate this award.”

USC Excellence in Professionalism Award honorees are nominated by peers, staff, residents and medical students. A committee of peers review the nominations and choose a recipient.

The award is part of the USC Professionalism Program, which was launched in 2016. That year, a physician-led team defined a set of professionalism standards based on input from the Keck Medicine community. Those standards became known as the Keck Commitment.

Other nominees for the 2018 USC Excellence in Professionalism Award included Peter Crookes, MD, professor of surgery; George Hatch, MD, associate professor of clinical orthopaedic surgery; Mitra Nadim, MD, FASN, professor of clinical medicine; Brian Nguyen, MD, assistant professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology; Daniel Oakes, MD, associate professor of clinical orthopaedic surgery; Giselle Petzinger, MD, associate professor of neurology (clinical scholar); Ling Shao, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine; Vaughn Starnes, MD, chair and Distinguished Professor of Surgery; Michael Wang, MD, associate professor of clinical medicine; Vickie Wu, MD, clinical assistant professor of medicine (clinician educator); and George Yaghmour, MD, assistant professor of clinical medicine.

— Erica Rheinschild