Leonard Mermel, D.O.’84, ScM, AM (Hon.), FSHEA, FIDSA, FACP

 Leonard Mermel, D.O.’84, M.S., was honored by the Rhode Island Hospital medical staff with the 2016 Milton Hamolsky Outstanding Physician Award. The award, named after a recognized medical education leader in the state and an endocrinologist who served as Rhode Island Hospital’s first full-time physician-in-chief, is presented each year to a doctor who has made exceptional contributions to patient care and leadership. Mermel joined the hospital staff in 1991 and is medical director of the department of epidemiology and infection control. He is a world leader in epidemiology of hospital-acquired infections, most specifically catheter-associated bloodstream infections. He has more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and has represented the hospital and Brown University faculty in many national and international meetings. Mermel is also a professor of medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and adjunct clinical professor at the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy. He has served in the capacity of an expert adviser for many public-sector entities, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as well as national bodies in Switzerland, Ireland, Israel, Germany and the United Kingdom. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.