Recipient of new pediatric cardiology teaching award named
Award honors UC College of Medicine Class of 1957 graduate
The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine has awarded the first Roger B. Cole, MD, Excellence in Teaching Award in Pediatric Cardiology and/or Pediatrics. The inaugural recipient is Robert Ross, MD, director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Program (Cardiology Division), Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, and clinical professor of pediatrics at Central Michigan University College of Medicine.
The award is named for Roger Cole, MD, Class of 1957. Cole died in 2017 and his family and friends donated the funds to create the award. Cole, a pediatric cardiologist, served as clinical professor on the faculty of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine for more than 40 years.
The Cole Excellence in Teaching Award was established to honor a pediatrician and/or a pediatric cardiologist who is a UC College of Medicine faculty or alumnus, a former cardiology fellow or pediatric resident, a former trainee of Cole’s and a pediatric cardiologist or pediatrician who demonstrates excellence in teaching and training.
Robert Ross, MD, is the first recipient of the new Roger B. Cole, MD, Excellence in Teaching Award in Pediatric Cardiology and/or Pediatrics. (Photo provided)
Ross trained under Cole and was his first resident to rotate with him when he opened his private practice in Chicago before completing a fellowship in pediatric cardiology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Ross says Cole was instrumental in his decision to specialize in pediatric cardiology and to dedicate much of his career to teaching. In 1987, Ross joined the faculty at the Wayne State University School of Medicine and, four years later, helped start the Children’s Hospital of Michigan Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship Program, which he still directs. Ross is also a past president and board member of the Society of Pediatric Cardiology Training Program Directors, and now serves on the executive committee of the Council of Pediatric Subspecialties.
“I believe that Dr. Ross’s incredible dedication to teaching the next generations of pediatric cardiology providers, his compassionate patient care and his wide-reaching academic pursuits and leadership over the last 30-plus years, makes him an exemplary model and living example of the legacy of Dr. Cole and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine,” stated a letter of recommendation for the award.
Richard Becker, MD, professor in the UC Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Health and Disease, and director of the UC Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute, chaired the Selection Committee for the teaching award. Other committee members were from the UC departments of Pediatrics, Surgery and Internal Medicine and the Northwestern University Department of Pediatric Cardiology.
The late Roger Cole, MD, UC College of Medicine Class of 1957, with a young patient. (Photo provided)
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