(Boston)–Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine faculty member, Robert J. Canelli, MD, is the recipient of the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award presented by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. This award is presented annually to faculty who best demonstrate the foundation’s ideals of outstanding compassion in the delivery of care, respect for patients, their families and healthcare colleagues, as well as clinical excellence.
A Clinical Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Canelli is an anesthesiologist and intensivist at Boston Medical Center (BMC). His empathy towards patients and their families is remarkable says a colleague. “His compassion is present in the perioperative arena where Dr. Canelli strives to make his patients feel at ease prior to surgery. It extends into his practice in the intensive care unit, where he strives to care for critically ill patients and their families at their most vulnerable time. Dr. Canelli’s clinical expertise coupled with his caring bedside manner is an asset to BMC as he delivers high quality anesthetic and intensive care to our most at risk patients.”
Another colleague says Canelli not only excels as a clinician, working conscientiously and meticulously on behalf of patients in a wide range of clinical settings, but also as an educator who is enthusiastically involved with teaching medical students, residents, and junior faculty, mentoring many of them. “He is a role model who shows respect for everyone. As an accomplished academic clinician, he is constantly immersed in elucidating complex diagnoses and ethical dilemmas, always guiding trainees towards the best management strategies for critically ill patients.”
Canelli is dedicated to the development of the next generation of physicians and healthcare providers. To this end, he has developed a systems-based simulation curriculum for anesthesia trainees, and he has introduced a point of care ultrasound initiative that aims to teach this skill to medical students, residents, nurse practitioners and fellows. “Not only is Dr. Canelli regularly going out of his way to teach trainees at the individual level, he has created an environment that allows and encourages them to gain knowledge in the use of ultrasound for the evaluation of cardiac, pulmonary, and gastric abnormalities,” according to another colleague.
Canelli received his BS in chemistry from Villanova University and MD from St. George’s University School of Medicine. He completed his residency at the University of Massachusetts, UMass Memorial Medical Center, where he served as chief resident from July 2012-June 2013, and a fellowship in critical care from Harvard University, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
The Arnold P. Gold Foundation is a public, nonprofit organization founded by the late Arnold Gold, MD, and his wife Sandra Gold, EdD, to perpetuate the tradition of the caring doctor by emphasizing the importance of the relationship between the practitioner and the patient. Its objective is to help physicians-in-training become doctors who combine the high-tech skills of cutting-edge medicine with the high touch skills of effective communication, empathy and compassion.