Med School Prof From Farmington Earns Major Award

Quinnipiac University

FARMINGTON/NORTH HAVEN, CT — A medical school professor from Farmington was honored recently by the Connecticut university where he works.

Dr. Rahul Anand of Farmington, associate professor of medical sciences, is being recognized for his "exceptional service as an adviser and mentor to students" at the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University, which is located in North Haven.

Anand has been named a recipient of the Students and Trainees Advocating for Resource Stewardship (STARS) Faculty Excellence Award from Costs of Care, a national nonprofit organization that strives to provide better health care at a lower cost.

Quinnipiac medical students Elina Kurkurina, Alex Mass, Kathleen Mulligan and Brendan Rooney nominated Anand for the award.

The STARS program encourages students to lead change to advance health care value within their own medical schools by providing them with support and resources.

More than 50 academic centers have been involved in this initiative, which started in 2015.

Quinnipiac became the first institution in Connecticut to join the program in 2018.

“Dr. Anand trusted, advocated for, and encouraged us to pursue our value-based care interests,” the QU Netter students wrote. “Medical school curricula are highly regimented and lecture hours are a finite and coveted resource. Dr. Anand advocated for two hours of dedicated classroom time for us to introduce our peers to value-based medicine through a student-led lecture and scenario-based workshop.

"Most importantly, he trusted us to design and present a session that would be meaningful and engaging to first-year medical students. Dr. Anand’s support and belief in our ability to lead an academic session as first-year medical students provided us with a strong sense of purpose and the confidence to champion an issue important to us as future physicians.”

Anand said, “I’m grateful to our students for nominating me and delighted to receive this award on behalf of all the STARS faculty mentors. It’s really our students who inspire us to strive for excellence. I am filled with hope that, together, we can make a difference to our education and health care systems.”

Anand will receive the award at the sixth annual Architecture of High Value Health Care Conference in Baltimore, Md., Oct. 12-14.

A member of the Netter faculty since 2018, Anand’s teaching focuses on microbiology and infectious diseases.

He also directs an award-winning elective curriculum on leadership and teamwork for medical students.

Anand trained in Delhi, India, where he completed medical school at Delhi University and a residency at one of the highest volume tertiary care centers in India, which had a high number of tropical disease cases.

He moved to the United States in 2004 and completed his medical residency at Temple University, followed by an infectious diseases fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University.

For the full announcement, click on this link.