Support UsRosenblatt Community Medicine Endowed Award Fund
This endowment was established in 2007 by Roger A. Rosenblatt, M.D., MPH, and his wife, Fernne S. Rosenblatt, with matching support from the University of Washington’s Faculty-Staff-Retiree Campaign for Students. The fund recognizes and supports the efforts of students who are undertaking an Independent Investigative Inquiry (III) or other independent community medicine project while participating in the R/UOP, CHAP, or IHOP programs, or any other program or track within the UW School of Medicine that includes a community medicine component and a student-led project. Distributions from the endowment will be used to provide awards to these students.
Dr. Rosenblatt has been a faculty member at the UW School of Medicine for over 30 years. He was the first resident in family medicine at the University of Washington and was intimately involved with the development of the WWAMI program, both as a resident and as a faculty member.
Dr. Rosenblatt helped start the National Health Service Corps, a program of the Public Health Service that brings health professionals to under-served communities. His wife, Fernne, also has spent much of her life working to improve the quality of life in urban and rural communities. In fact, Roger and Fernne met while they were both working to establish new medical practices in underserved communities. They have continued to work together on a variety of projects, including education of rural youth and the creation of a land trust in Eastern Washington. In addition, Fernne Rosenblatt has worked for the last 10 years to improve educational opportunities for rural youth in rural Okanogan County, an activity which hopefully will better prepare rural youth for future health-care careers.
After pursuing other projects, Dr. Rosenblatt returned to the School of Medicine in 1977, and served as the director of the Family Medicine Clerkship. He then went on to establish the research section in the Department of Family Medicine. Dr. Rosenblatt created the WWAMI Rural Health Research center in 1985, and has served as vice chair — and several times as acting chair — of the Department of Family Medicine for over two decades. For the last 10 years, Dr. Rosenblatt has served as director of the R/UOP program, and in that role he developed the community medicine option (also known as the III-selective 3) for medical students. This program is the focus of this award.
Just as Dr. and Mrs. Rosenblatt have directed their energies to improving the availability and quality of health services for disadvantaged groups, the purpose of this award is to recognize students who also make an exemplary contribution to this goal.