We are very pleased to announce the five faculty members who have been selected as UPMC Physician Excellence Award winners. Each recipient was chosen from many highly qualified nominees. The ID Division was represented in the Early- to Mid-Career Physician in Patient Care, New Physician, and, Senior Physician categories. 

Tatiana Bogdanovich, MD, PhD, UPMC Senior Physician Excellence in Clinical Care awardee, nominated by Drs. Mellors and Sluis-Cremer. 

This award honors physicians with more than 10 years of practice experience who demonstrate clinical excellence, make exceptional contributions to clinical care, achieve high practice standards, and display exceptional teamwork, engagement, and passion for medicine.

Dr. Bogdanovich holds the rank ofClinical Associate Professor of Medicine. She has been a member of the ID Division for 12 years. Dr. Bogdanovich is highly regarded by her patients and their families and is often praised for her ability to unhurriedly explain to them their diagnosis and plan of care. She serves as a full-time clinician working tirelessly with a heavy inpatient clinical load, staffing very busy Transplant Infectious Diseases (TID) services at UPMC Presbyterian, UPMC Montefiore, and UPMC Shadyside hospitals. She is passionate about patient access and remains extremely flexible in opening up clinic slots to accommodate patients guaranteeing them access to care.

Nupur Gupta, DO, MPH, UPMC Early- to Mid-Career Physician Excellence in Clinical Care awardee, nominated by Drs. Abdel-Massih and McMahon. 

This award honors physicians with 4-10 years of practice experience who demonstrate clinical excellence, role model our shared values in clinical care, achieve high practice standards, and display exceptional teamwork, engagement, and passion for medicine.

Dr. Gupta holds the rank of Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine. She joined the ID Division in 2019. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Gupta was quick to volunteer to screen potential donors for convalescent plasma in addition to her regular duties. She also stepped up to receive additional training in infection prevention so she could provide support to long-term care facilities in Pennsylvania dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks via telehealth.

Ken Ho, MD, MPH, UPMC Senior Physician Excellence in Clinical Care awardee, nominated by Drs. McMahon and Riddler.

Dr. Ho is honored as a physician with more than 10 years of practice experience who demonstrates clinical excellence, makes exceptional contributions to clinical care, achieves high practice standards, and displays exceptional teamwork, engagement, and passion for medicine.

Dr. Ho holds the rank of Associate Professor of Medicine and has been a member of the ID Division since 2011. Dr. Ho is dedicated to the patients and community he serves as demonstrated by the numerous talks on biomedical HIV prevention, pre-exposure prophylaxis, and sexually transmitted infections presented within the tristate area. He is considered a national expert on HIV prevention. Through his work with the PrEP subcommittee with AIDS Free Pittsburgh, Dr. Ho has worked to improve community and health care provider knowledge HIV biomedical prevention options.

Sabina Zawadzka, DO, MS, UPMC New Physician Excellence in Clinical Care awardee, nominated by Dr. Abdel-Massih. 

This award honors new physicians with 1-3 years of practice experience who demonstrate clinical excellence, contribute to our shared clinical mission, achieve high practice standards, and display exceptional teamwork, engagement, and passion for medicine. 

Dr. Zawadzka holds the rank of Clinical Assistant Professor Medicine. She joined the ID Division in 2020. Assigned to a new rural hospital, where the culture was not focused on best practices and quality of care, she has worked relentlessly despite negativity and push back of the local culture. With continued hard work, proposing changes and quality improvements to our team and the local site, she, alongside her colleagues, was able to bring about positive change at the local institution. During a recent site visit at that institution, almost every hospitalist mentioned Dr. Zawadzka by name and commended her performance and how valued she was as a colleague despite being remote and practicing from thousands of miles away.

Congratulations Tatiana, Nupur, Ken, Palash and Sabina!