I’m honored to share that on October 7, 2021, I will be awarded the Nathaniel Bedford Primary Care Physician Award for 2020 by the Allegheny County Medical Society. Dr. Bedford was the first practicing physician in Pittsburgh, and namesake of Bedford Ave. in the Hill District (as well as the person who decided to name Carson Street after a friend who was a ship’s captain). You can read all about the award here. The award comes with $1000 to be donated to the charity of my choice, which I have chosen to give to Hebrew Free Loan Association of Pittsburgh. 
Hebrew Free Loan provides interest-free loans for large, one-time expenses that can make the difference between a family forging ahead or falling to pieces. Purchasing a car, adopting a child, releasing a new album of music, or finishing graduate school are only a few of the things that this vital organization has helped provide for. One of the keys to primary care medicine for me is recognizing the role that a person’s lifeworld plays in their well-being, and the needs that HFLA-Pittsburgh helps to address are among the most important parts of that lifeworld – career, transportation, starting a family or pursuing a dream – and I have regularly referred people to them because I knew that their assistance might mean more to that person than any medicine I could prescribe.
My wife Vita Nemirovsky, a former HFLA board member with whom I am co-chair of HFLA’s fall fundraising campaign, likes to say that HFLA “recycles money.” Since these are loans, repaid typically over 2-3 years, one donation ends up helping a series of people over decades, with very little overhead. Not only that, but the loan continues to help the borrower even after it is repaid by serving as a way for someone who might not qualify for conventional loans to build their credit and make it easier for them to hold a credit card, rent an apartment, or purchase a vehicle on their own in the future.
I’ve already received a lot of well-wishes for the Bedford award, but what would really make me happy is if everyone reading this would consider a donation to HFLA Pittsburgh. Healing People, Not Patients doesn’t happen in isolation, and by doing so you would be directly contributing to the work I do, even if you can’t stand the sight of bodily fluids and don’t remember which side the liver is on.
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