Cura Personalis Award Recipient: HIV/AIDS Epidemic Taught Me to be a Better Person

By Georgetown University Medical Center – November 27, 2019

When Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, MPA, reflects on her graduation day from medical school at Cairo University many years ago, she admits that her perception then about what it meant to be a physician differed greatly from reality.

The infectious-disease trained doctor, who leads ICAP — a global health center at Columbia University she founded in 2003 to improve the health of families and communities — says the HIV/AIDS epidemic “upended” her smooth career trajectory.

“It simply changed everything. It changed my life in many, many different ways and shaped my career here.”

For achievements in her career, including significant scientific contributions and personal commitment to understanding better ways for addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the people it affected, Georgetown University Medical Center bestowed upon El-Sadr its highest honor, the Cura Personalis Award, at the Twelfth Annual GUMC Convocation on November 18.


Originally published by Georgetown University Medical Center. See entire article here.