Filak, Luke to Receive UC College of Medicine's Highest Honor May 19

CINCINNATI—The University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine will present two faculty members and longtime leaders with the college's highest honor, the Daniel Drake Medal, on Saturday, May 19.

Drake Medal recipients for 2018 will be:

• Andrew Filak Jr., MD, senior associate dean for academic affairs, professor and chair of the Department of Medical Education and professor of family and community medicine; and
• Robert Luke, MD, UC emeritus professor of internal medicine and former chair of the Department of Internal Medicine.

The Drake Medal is given annually by the College of Medicine to living faculty or alumni for their outstanding and unique contributions to medical education, scholarship and research. The award was established in 1985 to honor the 200th birthday of Daniel Drake, MD, the founder of the Medical College of Ohio, the forerunner of the UC College of Medicine. Drake was one of the most influential physicians, educators and scientists of 19th century America. He also founded Cincinnati College, the Cincinnati Lancaster Seminary, Cincinnati Public Library, the Western Museum and Commercial Hospital and Lunatic Asylum (known today as UC Medical Center). He also established the Cincinnati Eye Infirmary and the Kentucky School for the Blind in Louisville.

Filak and Luke will receive their medals May 19 during the college's annual Honors Day ceremonies at the Aronoff Center for the Arts, during which 150 students will receive their medical degrees. The two honorees will also be celebrated at a dinner at the Queen City Club that evening. Their names, along with biographies and photos, will be added to the Daniel Drake Medal exhibit in the Medical Sciences Building on UC's medical campus. 

Andrew Filak Jr., MD

Filak is the founding chair of the Department of Medical Education at the UC College of Medicine. He has led all educational activities at the college since 1991, serving first as associate dean and then senior associate dean. In 2011, Filak led and implemented a significant revision of the college's curriculum where students began receiving clinical training beginning with their first year of medical education. Filak served as interim dean and vice president for health affairs for nearly a year beginning in 2010. He also has served for 31 years as the designated institutional official for graduate medical education. Filak came to UC for his family medicine residency in 1978 after receiving his medical degree from George Washington University in Washington, DC, and joined the faculty in 1981. He has received numerous other awards, including the John. C. Leonard Award from the Association for Hospital Medical Education, the Parker J. Palmer Courage to Lead Award from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and Educator of the Year from the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians.

Robert Luke, MD

Luke served as chair of the UC College of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine from April 1988 until June 2004. During his tenure, he oversaw the creation of the nation's first teaching practice plan to allow reimbursement for educational activities by faculty. He also developed the first clinical reimbursement model for the department's clinicians and clinician-educators. Luke helped create the department's Educational Innovation Project, which develops new ways to improve residency education and patient care, and the Internal Medicine Scholars Training for Academic Research program, which mentors junior faculty and prepares them for academic research careers. An expert in hypertension and kidney disease, Luke has published 280 scientific papers and served as editor of the American Journal of Kidney Disease. He held previous faculty positions at the University of Alabama Birmingham and University of Kentucky. He received his medical degree from Glasgow University in Scotland and completed a research fellowship at Yale University.