I've written many papers for academic journals since my first article was published during my third year of my family medicine residency. My full-length CV that lists every one of them, which I update meticulously, now stretches to 18 pages in 11-point font. But the "Honors and Awards" section only takes up one-third of a page and includes three awards from residency. Until today, I would have said that the award I'm most proud of is the Article of the Year Award I received in 2009 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for my 2008 systematic review of the benefits and harms of PSA screening for prostate cancer. It launched my career in preventive medicine and guideline development and led to lots of invitations to speak and write other papers (like this one) on how to approach decision-making surrounding the PSA test in older men.
Today I learned that a recent systematic review that I co-authored on the harms of screening colonoscopy has won a major research award from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. I'm delighted, not only for the surprise recognition, but because earlier versions of this paper were rejected by several different gastroenterology and general internal medicine journals and panned by highly credentialed peer reviewers (who fervently believed that screening colonoscopy could only be a force for good) before it was finally accepted. It is testimony to the persistence of Dr. Alison Huffstetler and the rest of our team that the product of our many hours of slogging through the medical literature ever saw the light of day. Most importantly, I hope that this paper - like my prostate cancer paper in 2008 - makes a meaningful contribution to the conversations that family physicians and their patients have every day about the benefits and harms of cancer screening tests.
