The American College of Physicians announced that it will present its 2010-11 Award for Diversity and Access to Care to Shagufta Yasmeen, medical director of the UC Davis Health System’s Shifa Community Clinic.

Yasmeen, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and internal medicine, is due to receive the award in April in San Diego, at the American College of Physicians’ national meeting.

The free, student-run Shifa clinic provides primary care to a diverse population of disadvantaged patients, and does so in a culturally appropriate manner and in the right languages for the Middle Eastern and East Indian communities.

“Dr. Yasmeen and the other volunteers at the Shifa clinic are integrating cultural considerations into the provision of care. It’s patient-centered care at its finest,” said Fred Meyers, executive associate dean.

As a researcher, Yasmeen focuses on delivery of primary care to women, cancer screening and disparities in health outcomes among women, particularly among breast cancer patients.

She is a principal investigator in the national Women's Health Initiative, which has yielded significant information about the most common causes of death among postmenopausal women, including cancer and heart disease.

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Sandy Chen Stokes, a chaplain resident at the UC Davis Medical Center, has been chosen to receive one of the AARP magazine’s Inspire Awards, given to people “who are using their energy, creativity and passion to make the world a better place."

Stokes’ award recognizes her efforts in addressing end-of-life issues in the Chinese-American population.

The geriatric nurse founded the Chinese American Coalition for Compassionate Care in 2005. At first, the group translated basic end-of-life directives into Chinese and recruited volunteers to explain the forms to elderly Chinese Americans. Today, the coalition works with more than 60 health care organizations, including the American Cancer Society, to train health care workers about end-of-life issues for this population.

Stokes’ motivation to found the coalition stemmed from the traditional reluctance of Chinese Americans to talk about death, which is considered bad luck in China. Because of that resistance, Stokes struggles to even broach the subject with the families of terminally ill Chinese Americans.

"When children try to bring up subjects like health care directives, parents will say, 'Are you trying to make me die earlier?'" Stokes is quoted as saying in the AARP magazine’s January-February issue.

However, she noted, avoidance of the topic creates an intense burden for families, who then must scramble for last-minute solutions.

AARP video: Stokes talks about the coalition.

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He is the “Brewmaster General.” He is the “Professor of Beer.”

He is our very own Charlie Bamforth, the Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Malting and Brewing Sciences in the Department of Food Science and Technology. And he is gaining more notoriety than ever before.

• Playboy magazine gave him the “Brewmaster General” title in the magazine’s October issue, in an “Honor Roll” of 20 U.S. professors “who are reinventing the classroom” and shaping the future generation.

• In November, the National Press Club welcomed Bamforth to its 33rd annual Book Fair and Authors Night, where he presented his latest volume: Beer is Proof God Loves Us: Reaching for the Soul of Beer and Brewing. The club invited 90 nationally known authors to this year’s Book Fair and Authors Night, held Nov. 9.

• CBS News’ Sunday Morning referred to him as the “Professor of Beer” in a Nov. 21 feature that included footage of Bamforth and the UC Davis campus.

• On Dec. 3, Ira Flatow hosted the professor on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation: Science Friday. Listen to the archived program.

• Bamforth is slated to appear on a Discovery Channel documentary, "How Beer Saved the World," on Feb. 6.

And he is the subject of a feature story, "The Buzz on Beer," in the winter issue of UC Davis Magazine.

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The Culinary Institute of America has selected Professor Emeritus Vernon Singleton for induction into the Vintners Hall of Fame.

Singleton is one of five people in the hall of fame’s class of 2011. The induction ceremony is scheduled for February at the institute’s Greystone campus in St. Helena, as part of the institute’s fifth annual Celebration of California Wine and Food.

Singleton, who retired in 1991 after almost 35 years at UC Davis, groundbreaking research in phenolics and oxidation in wine — and did so years ahead of today’s surge of interest in this area.

The Vintners Hall of Fame, established in 2007, already includes three other UC Davis faculty members: Maynard Amerine, Carole Meredith and Harold Olmo. Singleton worked with all of them, and joined Amerine in writing Wine: An Introduction for Americans.

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The UC Davis Health System has received the annual Spirit of Excellence Award for Service from Modern Healthcare magazine, in recognition of efforts to improve the patient experience.

The $5,000 award stems from the health system’s innovative and successful “patient-centered medical home” approach, implemented two years ago by physicians and staff in the Family and Community Medicine Department.

The patient home model features twice-daily team huddles among faculty, residents, nursing and medical assisting staff, clerical staff and supervisors to discuss each patient’s specific needs.

“Teamwork will be a key to both improved patient satisfaction and improved efficiency,” said Thomas Balsbaugh, residency program director. “Receiving the Spirit of Excellence Award is a wonderful recognition of the hard work it takes to help practices change.”

He said electronic health records also play a key role in the patient home model, by allowing medical assistants to be more patient-focused, once freed of clerical duties.

Surveys indicate that the patient home model is working. For example, in July 2010, 78 percent of patients rated their overall quality of care as “excellent,” up from 55 percent in February 2009. And 88 percent of patients said they could schedule timely appointments in July 2010, up from 29 percent in February 2009.

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Dateline welcomes news of faculty and staff awards, for publication in Laurels. Send information to dateline@ucdavis.edu.