BRIEFLY NOTED Dr. Karl Steinberg Wins Prestigious Award

THE SAN DIEGO COUNTY MEDICAL Society is excited to congratulate one of our own, Dr. Karl Steinberg, for winning a prestigious award for advancing palliative care.

California State University San Marcos announced, “A nursing facility and hospice medical director who has served as a passionate advocate for palliative care in the San Diego region has been named the 2022 recipient of the Doris A. Howell Award for Advancing Palliative Care, presented annually by the CSU Shiley Haynes Institute for Palliative Care.

“A $25,000 gift in Howell’s honor from philanthropist Darlene Marcos Shiley accompanies the annual award and is bestowed on a local healthcare organization with ties to the selected recipient.”

“Karl Steinberg, MD, medical director for many San Diego-based agencies and facilities since the mid-1990s, is this year’s Howell honoree,” the Cal State San Marcos-based institute announced. Steinberg has served as medical director for organizations that include Hospice by the Sea, Carlsbad By The Sea Care Center, Beecan Health (35 facilities), Mariner Health Care (21 facilities), Shea Family Care, La Paloma Healthcare Center, and Scripps Coastal

Medical Center.

Steinberg was nominated for the award by Jennifer Moore Ballentine, CEO of the Coalition for Compassionate Care and the former executive director of the CSU Shiley Haynes Institute for Palliative Care.

“In his work with patients, Dr. Steinberg offers an expert and empathic bedside presence,” Ballentine said. “His authentic humility and devotion to the wellbeing of every person he encounters — whether in the facility, the classroom, or the legislative hearing room — are always to the fore. Dr. Steinberg is also a tireless advocate, teacher, writer, and leader who has significantly advanced palliative care in the San Diego region across many fronts. He has ‘worked the halls’ in the state Capitol, testified and advised on legislation affecting medical decision-making for and by frail elders, and lent his voice and strength to many causes with direct impact on people living with serious illness.”

The Howell award is named after the late Dr. Doris Howell, a legendary physician and pioneer in pediatric hematology, oncology, and community medicine who in 1977 founded San Diego Hospice and the Institute for Palliative Medicine (SDHIPM).

Sen. Atkins Honors Dr. Lase

Ajayi as Senate District’s Woman Making Herstory for Health Care Policy Leadership

EVERY YEAR, IN CELEBRATION OF WOMEN’S History Month, the legislature has a tradition of celebrating women from each senate and assembly district “who are accomplishing amazing things in their communities.”

Sen. Atkins’ office stated in part, “Dr. Ajayi is currently an assistant professor of pediatrics at UC San Diego and Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego, where she works as a hospitalist and pediatric palliative medicine physician. She serves as the director of diversity initiatives, director of clinical research, assistant professor of molecular medicine, and a senior staff scientist in digital medicine at the Scripps Research Translational Institute. She is also the co-medical director of adult palliative medicine at Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego.

“Dr. Ajayi has a long history of leadership in policy-making and organized medicine at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and is an AAP delegate to the American Medical Association (AMA), where she advocates for the needs of children and those with serious illness. She is a former chair of the AMA and CMA young physician sections.

“Dr. Ajayi’s research focuses on opportunities at the intersection of novel digital medicine technologies and unmet needs in maternal fetal health as well as pain and palliative medicine.”

Dr. Preeti Mehta Appointed to California Respiratory Care Board by Sen. Atkins

SAN DIEGO COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY

Treasurer Preeti S. Mehta, MD, has been appointed by California Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins to the Respiratory Care Board of California, which oversees the 44,000 Licensed Respiratory Care Practitioners (RCP) in the state. RCPs regularly perform critical lifesaving and life support procedures prescribed by physicians that affect major organs of the body. Patients may be suffering from lung cancer, emphysema, asthma, or cystic fibrosis, or may be premature infants whose lungs have not yet fully developed.