“Gold Medal” Award for Dr. Kramer
Christopher Kramer, MD, Ruth C. Heede Professor of Cardiology and Professor of Radiology
Division of Cardiovascular Medicine
FACULTY NEWS: “Gold Medal” for Dr. Kramer
Christopher Kramer, MD, of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine received a Gold Medal Award from the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR), the premier professional organization in the field, at its annual meeting in February 2015. The award was presented at the SCMR’s joint meeting with the cognate European society, EuroCMR, in Nice, France.
According to Cardiovascular division chief Brian Annex, MD, this is a “reminder of the many ways that collaboration between the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, the Cardiovascular Research Center, the Department of Radiology and the Department of Biomedical Engineering helps keep our noninvasive cardiovascular imaging program one of the best in the country.”
The announcement of the award from the SCMR lauded Dr. Kramer for being a “focused, devoted and strong advocate of CMR throughout his entire career,” and comments:
“He provided more than a decade of strong leadership to our Society, including serving as its President in 2009-10. Before that, he served as Program Chair from 2004-06, and as Chair for the Task Force on Standardized Protocols, which led to the publication of a document that has been incredibly important at setting standards for how clinical CMR is performed around the world. […] He has been the primary national advocate for having the SCMR take its proper, equal place among the four major imaging societies (echo, nuclear, CT) in the greater cardiovascular medicine community; this effort included fostering the recognition of CMR within the American College of Cardiology by serving as Chair of the Imaging Council and the CMR Task Force for COCATS, as well as Vice-Chair of the Appropriate Use Criteria Task Force.
“Dr. Kramer has also been a distinguished leader in the scientific advancement and expansion of the clinical applications of CMR. He made outstanding contributions to a wide range of topics, including post-MI left ventricular remodeling, myocardial viability, quantitative myocardial perfusion and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. He is currently Co-PI of … a multicenter, international, NHLBI-sponsored effort that is expected to increase our understanding of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, as well as elevate CMR’s diagnostic and prognostic role.
“Christopher Kramer has been at the forefront of training and mentoring … CMR clinician researchers through an NIH/NIBIB Training Grant he has successfully held since 2005. Many of his trainees have gone on to establish highly productive and widely recognized CMR centers of their own. Dr. Kramer has given many years of highly distinguished and extraordinary service to the field of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance and to the Society – and will no doubt continue to do so.”