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PCMS honorees
Award recipients spend years making impacts in their fields By Susan L. Peña, Contributing Writer
Editor’s note: The Philadelphia County Medical Society presented the 2020 and 2021 Strittmatter Awards on June 25, 2021 during the installation of its 160th president, Dr. Stephen R. Permut, MD, JD. We interviewed the winners, Dr. Robert H. Rosenwasser, MD, MBA, FACS, FAHA (2020), and Dr. N. Scott Adzick, MD, MMM, FACS, FAAP (2021), to find out why they chose their specialties and to explain their achievements in research and clinical practice.
Dr. Robert H. Rosenwasser When Rosenwasser was growing up in the 1960s in Shreveport, La., no one would have suspected that he would later become a neurological surgeon and researcher of note.
Dr. Robert H. Rosenwasser, 2020 Strittmatter Award recipient, with his wife, Dr. Deborah August.
Rosenwasser was already making his mark locally as a musician, having studied piano and violin as a child and playing guitar in rock bands. “I wanted to be a professional musician,” he said, chuckling. “Medicine was my fallback.” While attending Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, La., where he earned a bachelor’s degree in music and philosophy, Rosenwasser would study until 10 p.m. and then go out to paid gigs in New Orleans’ French Quarter. While he took courses in science, he was not a pre-med student, although many of his fraternity brothers were. As graduation approached, he began to consider what to do next, as the Vietnam War was winding down, but the draft was still active (his lottery number was 3).
Dr. N. Scott Adzick is surgeon-in-chief, founder (in 1995) and director of the Richard D. Wood Jr. Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Adzick has not only become the pre-eminent pediatric general and thoracic surgeon of his generation, but for 30 years has led groundbreaking research on fetal surgery, a field that was in its infancy when he earned his medical degree. 26 Philadelphia Medicine : Winter 2022
When his friends suggested he go to medical school, he took the MCATS almost on a whim, and did well. Still undecided about his next step, he applied to the Louisiana State University medical school in his hometown, and was accepted.
Completed internship, residency Rosenwasser turned out to be a brilliant student; he completed his medical doctorate in 1979, and then completed his internship in general surgery at Temple University Hospital, where he also completed
