SHM’s Awards of Excellence

Eligibility requirements for all categories include:

• Nominees must be active, dues-paying members of the Society of Hospital Medicine for a minimum of one (1) year prior to the submission deadline.
• Nominees should have demonstrated engagement with the Society of Hospital Medicine and its missions
  • Engagement with the Society of Hospital Medicine:
    • Should be well described in the nomination materials.
    • The SHM engagement may may be demonstrated by the candidate’s description of their involvement with the Society (e.g., years of SHM membership; service on SHM committees, special interest groups, task forces or panels for scientific meetings, presentation of research at SHM meetings (abstracts, posters, and oral sessions), presentation of didactics, workshops, and/or pre-courses at SHM meetings, participation at SHM local or regional meetings, attendance at SHM sponsored activities; etc.).
    • If an applicant has limited engagement in SHM, they should describe their involvement in other national hospital-medicine initiatives as well as future plans for engagement with SHM including the SHM Academic Summit, SHM Leadership Academy, SHM Converge, and other SHM National and Regional offerings.
  • Members may self-nominate.
    • PLEASE NOTE: If you self-nominate and your nomination advances to the second round of review, you will be required to provide additional supporting materials, including an external recommendation.
    • Due to the review timeline, these materials may be requested with a short turnaround time.
  • Board members, officers, previous award winners and current members of the awards committee are ineligible.
  • The maximum number of nominations per nominee, per category, is 2. This includes self-nominations. The first 2 nominations submitted chronologically will be reviewed, at the discretion of the Awards Committee. Any additional nominations, per nominee per category, will not be reviewed.

Additional eligibility requirements for specific award categories include:

• To be eligible for the Junior Investigator Award, nominees must be within the first seven (7) years of completion of their highest level of postgraduate training (e.g., residency/fellowship for clinicians or conferral of a PhD or equivalent degree).
• Practicing physicians and advanced practice providers are ineligible for the Excellence as a Partner in Hospital Medicine award.
• Additional eligibility information for the Excellence in Teamwork and Junior Investigator Awards are detailed below.

     All submissions require the following:

(please review additional category specific requirements below)

• Initial Submission Requirements (Round 1)
  • For all award categories except Teamwork and Junior Investigator, submitters must provide:
    • Nominee’s name, title, organization, phone number, email address, title, and practice setting
    • Nominator’s relationship to nominee
    • Description of engagement and affiliation with SHM (Member, Fellow, SIG Member, etc.)
    • One letter, either self-nominating or from another party addressing the specific criteria for the award.
      • This letter should be:
        • No more than 500 words. Note: letterhead and signature block text are not counted.
        • Single-spaced
        • No less than 11-point font
        • No less than standard margin spacing (1-inch on all sides)
    • The Research Award requires the nominee’s full CV during the initial submission process. 
• If selected to advance to the 2^nd round of reviews, the nominee may be asked for the following:
  • Completion of a survey outlining their accomplishments as they pertain to the awards criteria.
  • An abbreviated CV (if not submitted during 1^st round)
  • If self-nominated, nominees must submit the above information along with the following:
    • Ask 1 external party to complete a survey outlining the nominee’s accomplishments or contributions related to the awards criteria.

Teamwork Award Applicants

• Initial Submission Requirements (Round 1)

1. Nomination Cover Letter and Team Listing
   • A complete listing of the individual team members, their professional backgrounds, and their roles in the team project, including a succinct description of the leadership role played by a hospitalist team member. The team should be comprised of members with meaningful team roles across different professional fields (e.g., physician, advanced practice clinicians, nurses, social work, etc.)
   • Information about the team and/or process not included in the abstract, including:
     • The nature/process of the collaboration, and how the program improved system processes and patient outcomes (include process and outcomes measures)
   • Explain how this work impacted Hospital Medicine specifically
   • The innovative aspect of the collaborative approach
   • The portability/transferability/scalability of the intervention to other institutions
2. Abstract
   • Limited to 2500 words (abstracts greater than 2500 words will not be accepted).
   • To include:
     • Background
     • Detailed methods addressing:
       • How the team worked together
       • How goals were attained

3. Letters of Support

• Up to 2 letters of support from a senior hospital administrator (e.g., Hospital Medicine Division Director, Chief Nursing Officer, Chief Medical Officer, Director of Quality Improvement, or equivalent leader).
  • The 1st letter is required; the 2nd letter is optional.
  • The letter should include an institution where the project has been implemented.
• An additional 2 letters may be submitted from other institutions that have adopted the intervention.
  • These letters are both optional.

4. Disclosure statement
   • Should indicate any direct, indirect, or pending project or faculty support from sources outside the home institution.

If selected to advance to the 2^nd round of reviews, the team may be required to provide additional information, which may include (but is not limited to) the following:

• Executive Leadership Survey: A member of the nominee’s executive leadership team may be asked to complete a survey regarding the nominee’s impact and contributions, which may include:
  • The impact of the nominee’s work, initiative, program, or contributions on their institution, hospital medicine program, healthcare team, and/or broader organization.
  • Demonstrated outcomes related to patient care, quality, safety, experience, operational effectiveness, or other relevant measures.
  • Additional information regarding accomplishments, innovation, leadership, collaboration, sustainability, or overall contributions relevant to the award category.
• Team Member Survey: A member of the nominated team may be asked to complete a survey regarding the team’s contributions and impact, which may include:
  • Information related to team composition, member roles, and engagement within the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM).
  • Examples of contributions, involvement, or service to SHM and/or the broader hospital medicine community.
  • Description of the team’s impact at the local, institutional, regional, or national level.
  • Additional information regarding accomplishments, outcomes, collaborations, innovation, or overall contributions relevant to the award category.

Junior Investigator Award Applicants

SHM’s Junior Investigator Award was created to recognize junior/early-stage investigators. Junior/early-stage investigators are defined as faculty in the first 7 years of furthest postgraduate training. Applicants must be a hospitalist and a clinician investigator or non-clinicians (i.e., a PhD) researching Hospital Medicine relevant topics. Nominations from mentors and self-nominations are both welcome. Applicants may request feedback about their applications after adjudication of the winner. The winner will present the Junior Investigator Award commendation talk (30 minutes) during SHM Converge.

Required Documents:

• A single page cover letter that expresses the applicant’s interest in the JIA award and confirms that they meet eligibility criteria.
• The nominee’s full CV.
• A letter of support from the department chair, division chair, Hospital Medicine group leader, or supervisor (must comply with the letter of reference requirements as outlined in the Awards Submission Requirements).
• Standard NIH Bio sketch (not to exceed 5 pages).
• A one-page description of Specific Aims or Personal Aspirations.
  • This document describes the key focus of the candidate’s future research and how these intersect the practice of hospital-based medicine.
• Supplementary information (not to exceed 3 pages) which should include each of the following:
  • Area of Interest and Impact of research:the anticipated impact the research may have/has had on hospital medicine, the practice of inpatient medicine or policies related to hospital-based care on a local, regional, or national level.
  • Career achievements and milestones:these should describe the candidate’s achievements in the form of scholarly products (e.g., abstracts, peer-reviewed publications, intra- and extra-mural grant funding, national/international invited talks).
  • Engagement with the Society of Hospital Medicine: must comply with the requested engagement information as outlined in the Awards Submission Requirements.