Fred Schiffman MD Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Monday, June 06, 2011

GoLocalProv Health Team

The Rhode Island chapter of the American College of Physicians recently presented Fred J. Schiffman, M.D., FACP, associate physician-in-chief and director of medical education at The Miriam Hospital, with one of the organization’s highest honors. The 2011 Milton Hamolsky Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes excellence in the specialty of internal medicine and service to both the community and the state chapter of the American College of Physicians.

"A gifted physician..."

“Dr. Schiffman is a gifted physician who continuously and tirelessly devotes his time to his fellow physicians, medical students, staff and – most of all – his patients and their families,” said William Corwin, M.D., senior vice president and chief medical officer, The Miriam Hospital. “The entire Miriam Hospital community congratulates him on this well-deserved honor.”

A hematologist and oncologist by training, Schiffman is also medical director of The Leonard and Adele R. Decof Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at The Miriam Hospital. He has been praised for his compassion and commitment to his patients as well as medical residents, and peers have regularly cited him as “world class in his treatment of patients” and an “impeccable physician who promotes excellence in patient care.”

"A longstanding commitment to compassionate care..."

“The selection committee commends Dr. Schiffman for his long-standing commitment to compassionate care,” said Thomas A. Bledsoe, M.D., FACP, governor of the RI Chapter of the American College of Physicians. “The committee noted Dr. Schiffman’s unparalleled dedication and praised his sensitivity to the lives of his patients and their families that is second-to-none.”

In addition, Schiffman is vice chairman of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and the inaugural Sigal Family Professor of Humanistic Medicine. The professorship, based at both The Miriam Hospital and Brown, supports a distinguished and compassionate physician providing medical treatment, with a special emphasis on teaching, research and training in humanistic medicine.

A New York native, Schiffman received his doctorate from New York University School of Medicine and performed his internship, residency, chief residency, and fellowship in hematology at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Schiffman also spent two years as a research associate at the National Cancer Institute in the Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry and Biology. He served as an instructor and assistant professor at Yale University School of Medicine before coming to Rhode Island and The Miriam Hospital in 1983. He also is a physician with University Medicine.

The Milton Hamolsky Lifetime Achievement Award is given in recognition of academic, clinical, research and administrative excellence to an internal medicine physician who epitomizes the attributes of the award's namesake, Milton Hamolsky, M.D., a now-retired endocrinologist who served as the first full-time physician-in-chief at Rhode Island Hospital. He is also the former chief administrative officer of the Rhode Island Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline and a pioneer of medical education in Rhode Island.