On June 15, 2005 during the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago’s Annual Reception and Award Ceremony, Anne Craft, Director of Market Development, received an Individual Special Recognition Award. Craft launched Kindred Hospitals of Chicago’s participation in the world’s largest stairclimb, Hustle up the Hancock, and served as chairperson for the five Kindred Hospital facilities participation in the Asthma Walk. The Chicago event is scheduled for Sunday, September 18, 2005.

Pictured from left to right, Master of Ceremonies, Karen Jordan, ABC &, Anne Craft, Joel Africk, CEO-American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago, and Dr. Manuel Claudio, Board President.

The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) has appointed Colleen M. Fitzgerald, M.D., medical director of the Women’s Health Rehabilitation Program.

Fitzgerald, with the collaboration of Cynthia Neville, PT, Director of Women’s Health Rehabilitation, will coordinate all the services involved with RIC’s Women’s Health Rehabilitation Program including managing diagnostics and therapy, providing education for staff and patients and directing relevant research relating to women’s health rehabilitation.

Fitzgerald attended Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Medical School. Fitzgerald trained at RIC as a resident from 1997-2000 and was awarded the Walter E. Heller Fellowship in 2000 and the Meyer S. Gunther Award in 1998.

Joel S. Policzer, MD, FACP, FAAHPM, has been named vice president and national medical director of VITAS Innovative Hospice Care(r).

With 20 years' experience as a team physician, inpatient hospice unit medical director, VITAS Miami-Dade County program medical director, and then VITAS Broward County program senior medical director, Dr. Policzer brings a wealth of experience and a hands-on perspective to his national role as an advocate for patients, families and hospice team members.

Dr. Policzer is board certified in hospice and palliative medicine, internal medicine, hematology and medical oncology and was a charter member of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. In addition, he is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, a member of the American Medical Association, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He was one of three co-editors of 20 Common Problems in End-of-Life Care, the definitive text on hospice and palliative medicine on which 19 VITAS experts collaborated. Dr. Policzer was presented with VITAS' Physician Caregiver of the Year Award in 1996 and twice named to the VITAS Leadership Council.

Dr. Policzer has dedicated much of his career to the study and practice of palliative care. He has developed teaching materials and courses in palliative medicine and hospice care at the Nova-Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine and the University of Miami, School of Medicine. He has also developed a curriculum in "End-of-Life Care and Jewish Law" and gives a yearly seminar to senior rabbinic students at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, and has presented this as well to the Department of Internal Medicine, Hadassah Hospital, Mt. Scopus Campus, in Jerusalem.

Dr. Policzer received his medical education at the University of Brussels, Belgium, and the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, and completed his residency in internal medicine at the Albany Medical College Hospitals, Albany, New York. He completed fellowships in hematology at the Center for Blood Diseases and medical oncology at the Comprehensive Cancer Center, both located at the University of Miami, School of Medicine. Concurrent to his work with VITAS, Dr. Policzer was in the private practice of hematology and oncology for 17 years in Plantation, Florida.