2001 Lifetime Achievement Award in Medical Education

Roland (Red) Hiss, M.D., professor and chair, Medical Education

Dr. Hiss epitomizes a tradition of excellence at the University of Michigan. His teaching of medical students has been exceptional. He has won several teaching awards, including: the Senior Award, the Galens Silver Shovel Award, the M2 Class Award (six times), and the Kaiser Permanente Teaching Award. In 1983 he was inducted as a faculty member into Alpha Omega Alpha.

Dr. Hiss contributed to the curriculum in a 26-year stint teaching Clinical Laboratory Diagnosis during the Hematology sequences and during a decade of teaching Pharmacologic Hematopoetic Toxicities

in sophomore Pharmacology. He was instrumental in the development and implementation of medical television as an innovative way to communicate educational information to students.

In addition to his teaching duties, Dr. Hiss served on the dean's staff as Coordinator of Affiliated Hospital Relations at the time when the major affiliates were the VA, Wayne County General, St. Joe's Ann Arbor, and Henry Ford Hospitals. He also established the Medical Center House Officer Committee.

Dr. Hiss was the Co-PI of the Renal Disease Control Program, in which a nurse conducted educational sessions "around the clock" at community hospitals for nurses and other health professionals (supported by the Michigan Department of Public Health and the Kidney Foundation of Michigan). He was an investigator with the "Neonatology Program," which developed educational materials for care of neonates in community hospitals in Michigan and the Michigan Pulmonary Education Program both supported by the NIH.

He came to the University of Michigan in 1961 as a resident after completing a three-year stint in the United States Air Force. After completing his residency and his Fellowship in Hematology at Michigan, he joined the ranks of the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine in 1966. In 1968, Dr. Hiss was named Assistant Professor of Post-Graduate Medicine and Health Professions Education and has had appointments in both department's ever since. For almost 20 years, Dr. Hiss has served as Chair of the Department of Medical Education.