Outstanding Public Service Award
Recognizes a Faculty or Staff Member Rendering Exceptional Public Service
Bruce Psaty
Department: Medicine, Epidemiology, and Health Services, 19 years at UW
Achievements: Last November, he told the U.S. Senate Finance Committee the painkiller Vioxx was linked to heart attacks and strokes. Despite criticism from the drug industry and government, Psaty has continued to expose the flawed studies of drug companies that gained FDA approval for this and other pharmaceuticals for over a decade. Alerting the public to the hidden risks associated with major prescription drugs, Psaty's research has saved lives. In his spare time, Psaty has volunteered for 57 national and international medical committees, served on panels and editorial boards for more than 20 medical journals, and worked as a consultant on drug safety for Senate committees on finance and health. He recently helped Sen. Charles Grassle (R-Iowa) draft a bill making drug studies open to public review. Psaty does not accept funding from drug companies for his research, getting almost all his funding from the National Institutes of Health.
Quote: "He has conducted robust research and taken forceful and courageous stands that have protected hundreds of thousands of patients from unnecessary injury or death from dangerous drugs." -Medicine and Health Services Professor Stephan D. Fihn
Degrees: A.B., Princeton University, 1972; M.A., Indiana University, 1975; Ph.D., Indiana University, 1979; M.D., Indiana University, 1981; M.P.H., University of Washington, 1986