The 2020 NIH Distinguished Clinical Teaching Award (DCTA) was awarded in a virtual presentation on June 10, 2020 to Dr. Charles Natanson, senior investigator and chief of the Anesthesia Section in the Clinical Center's Critical Care Medicine Department.
This award is the highest honor bestowed by NIH Clinical Fellows on a NIH senior clinician, staff clinician, or tenure-track clinical investigator. Each year's awardee is chosen by a vote of clinical fellows and presented to the nominee who best exemplifies the characteristics and traits of a mentor, teacher, clinician and researcher. From a group of nominees, Natanson has been recognized for his outstanding leadership and commitment to training future clinical investigators at NIH.
Natanson's research interests include using large and small animal models of sepsis to study the pathogenesis of—and new therapeutic interventions for—septic shock. He joined the CC's Critical Care Medicine Department in 1981 and became chief of the Anesthesia Section a year later.
Of Natanson, one of the nominating fellows remarked "One of the most important things I have learned from him is the ethics of what we do, from research to clinical practice. It is one thing to conduct research or deliver patient care. It is a whole other thing to do so in an ethical manner. He has published extensively about the ethics of research, and spends time instilling in his trainees the virtues and good practices that we will carry with us throughout our careers."
Dr. Anne Martini, Co-Chair of the Distinguished Clinical Teacher Award Selection Committee, presented the award prior to a Clinical Center Grand Rounds Great Teachers event, the John Laws Decker Memorial Lecture: "Personalized Oncology: Are We There Yet?", given by the 2019 DCTA awardee, Dr. Marijo Bilusic, of the National Cancer Institute.
- Robert Burleson