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Dr. David Overton, Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education at WMed and Professor and Chairman of the medical school’s Department of Emergency Medicine, has been recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Michigan College of Emergency Physicians.

The John A. Rupke, ���ϲʿ���ֱ�� Lifetime Achievement Award honors someone who has had a major impact on the practice of Emergency Medicine and who has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to emergency medicine “by an unparalleled commitment to professionalism, leadership and service which has established the recipient as an inspiration and role model throughout the specialty,” according to the Michigan College of Emergency Physicians.

Dr. Overton is the 11th recipient of the award, which was first awarded to Dr. John A. Rupke in 2009. He was nominated by Dr. Philip Pazderka, a faculty member and the Emergency Medicine Program Director at WMed.

In his letter nominating Dr. Overton for the award, Dr. Pazderka said Dr. Overton’s most significant contributions have been in medical education. Dr. Overton was instrumental in founding two emergency medicine residencies in Michigan – at William Beaumont Hospital and Western Michigan University. 

Dr. Overton’s impressive career spans more than 30 years and includes several leadership positions. He has served on the board of the Michigan College of Emergency Physicians, including as president from 1996 to 1997. He has served as a representative of MCEP to the national American College of Emergency Physicians for more than 30 years.

Dr. Overton served as Professor and Chairman of Emergency Medicine at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine for 13 years, and now serves as Professor and Chairman of Emergency Medicine at WMed, where he also serves as Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education.

“He served as the program director of the latter for nearly a quarter century, remarkable in an era where the average tenure of a director is only five years,” Dr. Pazderka wrote. “As such, he has helped train hundreds of emergency physicians, and has served as a faculty advisor and mentor to hundreds of medical students both within Michigan and nationally.”

Dr. Pazderka said Dr. Overton has demonstrated the unparalleled commitment to professionalism, leadership and service that exemplifies the lifetime achievement award.

“He has been an inspiration and a role model throughout the specialty,” Dr. Pazderka said.

Dr. Overton accepted the award at the annual meeting of the organization at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island July 30. 

“It was a great honor and humbling to be nominated by Phil and to have the Board of Directors select me,” Dr. Overton said.

In his acceptance speech, Dr. Overton thanked his family, acknowledged previous recipients of the award, and lamented that physicians that have said they would advise their children to avoid medicine as a career.

“I think that’s nonsense,” Dr. Overton said. “I would do emergency medicine again in a heartbeat. Yes, the practice of medicine has changed extensively, and it will change even more rapidly in the future. You will have to be nimble and change with it, perhaps reinvent yourself.

“But emergency medicine has been very good to me. Yes, I’ve given a lot to it, but I have received far, far more in return. For me, emergency medicine has been a great gig, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.”