Brown Medicine, a primary care and sub-specialty medical group practice with over 200 physicians in multiple patient care locations across Rhode Island, announces that Sevdenur Cizginer, M.D., M.P.H. is the recipient of The Miriam Hospital’s 2020 Annual Charles C.J. Carpenter, M.D. Outstanding Physician of the Year award.

Dr. Cizginer, a geriatrics specialist and researcher who works in Brown Medicine’s Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, was nominated by her peers for the award among more than 800 physicians, which was presented at The Miriam Hospital Medical Staff Association annual meeting held recently.

The award is the highest recognition that can be given to a member of The Miriam’s medical staff, recognizing a physician for outstanding contributions to medicine, leadership, professionalism, and patient care. Among her career accomplishments to date, Dr. Cizginer was recognized for initiating a novel collaboration between the hospital’s geriatrics and general surgery departments to provide multidisciplinary patient-centered care for elderly patients undergoing colorectal, vascular and general surgery. Her program, known as The Miriam’s Optimization of Senior Care and Recovery (OSCAR) program, has improved patient outcomes significantly while reducing hospital costs in surgery patients and was recognized by the Lifespan Health System for its innovation and excellence.

A resident of Sharon, Mass., Dr. Cizginer is medical director of Geriatric Surgery at The Miriam Hospital; leads patient care, teaching and clinical research in geriatric surgery; and also serves as assistant professor of medicine, clinician educator, and clinical assistant professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She is a recipient of Providence Business News 2015 “40 Under Forty” award for her career success and community involvement among young professionals. In 2018, as one of 15 young leaders nationwide, she was selected with full scholarship to the Tideswell-American Geriatrics Society-Association of Directors of Geriatrics Academic Programs’ Emerging Leaders in Aging Program. She received her Doctor of Medicine degree in 2005 from of Hacettepe University (Turkey), and is a 2018 graduate of Brown University’s School of Public Health. A past research fellow at Harvard Medical School, her clinical research studies continue to focus on postoperative delirium in hospitalized older adults, geriatric surgery, Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive aging, and cognitive reserve.

“On behalf of Brown Medicine, I want to say how pleased and proud we are about Dr. Cizginer being honored with the Charles Carpenter award,” states Louis B. Rice, M.D., president of Brown Medicine. “Her outstanding contributions to the specialties of geriatric surgery and aging are many, as is her dedication for advancing the field through research and leadership. This recognition could not be more well-deserved.”

In nominating Dr. Cizginer, Dr. Matthew Vrees, director of surgery at The Miriam Hospital and director of the Multidisciplinary Rectal Cancer Clinic at Lifespan, stated that, “Dr. Cizginer is a true leader who brought her outstanding vision to The Miriam Hospital and introduced the idea of co-management in the surgical care of the geriatric patient population. She initiated a new paradigm of care which made surgery safer for elderly patients while in the hospital and while they recovered at home. Sevde is such a caring physician whose warmth is greatly appreciated by her patients and their families. She combines an incredible ability to care for her patients in the present while spearheading research projects that will improve outcomes in the future. The surgical team, the hospital and the geriatric community all have benefited tremendously from her local and national leadership.”

The late Dr. Charles Carpenter (1931-2020), for whom the award is named, was Miriam’s physician-in-chief from 1986 to 1998. He was a pioneering medical researcher remembered as a mentor to many doctors, and was an innovator in cholera and HIV/AIDS treatment. He achieved widespread recognition for his work in treating diseases in developing countries, such as the development of oral rehydration therapy for cholera, a simple treatment that has saved millions of lives worldwide and remains the treatment of choice today. Dr. Carpenter was among the first to recognize the extent of heterosexual transmission in AIDS, leading to his pioneering work on HIV in women. A professor of medicine at Brown, he served as director of the Lifespan/Tufts/Brown Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and trained a generation of researchers in the field of international health.