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October 23, 2003

 

Two Physicians at Emory University School of Medicine Are Honored In New Exhibit at National Library of Medicine

A new National Institutes of Health (NIH) exhibit at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, highlights two physicians from Emory University School of Medicine. Nanette K. Wenger, MD, professor of medicine, and Flavia E. Mercado, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics, are featured in the NIH exhibit "Changing the Face of Medicine," which honors the lives and achievements of outstanding American women physicians.

The National Library of Medicine, the world’s largest medical library, is located on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

The interactive exhibit, which opened to the public October 14 and will continue through April 2, 2005, features stories from a diversity of women physicians, past and present, throughout the country and in a broad range of medical specialties. The exhibit chronicles the initial struggles of women to attend medical school, their campaign for additional professional training and other opportunities, and their many unique and groundbreaking accomplishments throughout the years.

The exhibit’s companion website is http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine. It includes a history of America’s women physicians and educational and professional resources for those considering medicine as a career. Website visitors can add stories about outstanding women physicians they know.

Dr. Wenger was among the first physicians to focus on coronary heart disease in women, and to evaluate the different risk factors and features of the condition in women and men. She received her doctor of medicine degree at Harvard Medical School in 1954 and began postgraduate work at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. In 1958 she became a senior medical resident at Emory University School of Medicine then a fellow in cardiology before joining the Emory faculty. She was named a full professor in 1971. Dr. Wenger conducts her clinical practice at Grady Memorial Hospital, where she is Chief of Cardiology.

She has served in major leadership roles on cardiovascular disease for the World Health Organization (WHO). She was co-chair of the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Conference on Cardiovascular Health and Disease in Women in 1992 and has been listed in the Best Doctors in America each year since 1994. In 1976 she was cited one of Time magazine’s "Women of the Year." She received the American Medical Women’s Association’s (AMWA) Women in Science President’s Award in 1993 and the Elizabeth Blackwell Award, AMWA’s highest award, in 2000. She was named the American Heart Association’s Physician of the Year in 1998.

In 1999, Dr. Wenger received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Scientific Councils of the American Heart Association and the American Heart Association’s Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award. She was presented the James D. Bruce Memorial Award of the American College of Physicians in 2000. In 2001, the American Heart Association presented her the R. Bruce Logue Award for Excellence in Medicine, and in 2002 she received the Distinguished Fellow Award of the Society of Geriatric Cardiology. Dr. Wenger has had a longstanding interest in geriatric cardiology, and is a past president of the Society of Geriatric Cardiology and editor of the American Journal of Geriatric Cardiology.

As a bilingual physician and educator, Dr. Mercado teaches the value of cultural competency, which requires that physicians are aware of cultural differences and treat all patients respectfully, an ideal she instills in every medical student she teaches. Dr. Mercado is associate director of the Department of Multicultural Affairs at Grady Health System and is a pediatrician at the Emergency Department of Hughes Spalding Children’s Hospital. She earned her doctor of medicine degree in 1988 from Emory University School of Medicine. She was an intern at Emory Affiliated Hospitals, then a pediatric resident at Children’s National Medical Center, George Washington University in Washington D.C. She was in private practice in Maryland from 1991 to 1995 and served as clinical professor at GWU Medical Center. From 1996 to 2002 she was a pediatrician at Atlanta’s Lindbergh Children’s Center, the Whitefoord Elementary School Clinic, and the Coan Middle School Clinic.

Dr. Mercado addresses problems that arise from English-only health care providers delivering acute medical care to non-English-speaking patients. In 1999 Dr. Mercado was selected for the Leadership Fellowship Program of the National Hispanic Medical Association. She also was elected to serve on the Executive Board of Cool Girls, Incorporated, a mentorship and educational program for young girls from impoverished backgrounds. She serves on the steering committee of the Hispanic Health Coalition of Georgia and is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics.


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