Two alumni of the Pritzker School of Medicine—Pat Basu, MD’05, MBA’05, and Thomas Fisher, MD’01, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Section of Emergency Medicine—have been selected as 2010–11 White House Fellows.
The White House Fellowship program offers winners first-hand experience working at the highest levels of federal government. This year's 13 fellows include lawyers, servicemen, doctors and professors, among others.
Fisher practices emergency medicine and studies the roles of race, socio-cultural structures and stereotyping in racial disparities in health and health care. Currently he is developing a community-medical center partnership called "Community Solutions in Action" to produce research and interventions that transform emergency departments' approaches to vulnerable communities.
A native Chicagoan, Fisher also partners with the New Community Program/Woodlawn in "Ask the Doctor," a monthly community discussion on health. In the past he participated in founding Project Brotherhood, a health care center specifically for African American men. He has mentored Chicago Public Schools students, including co-leading the University of Chicago-Kenwood Academy program for academic exploration.
His medical training included a year as chief resident and a fellowship in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program. Fisher is faculty affiliate of the University of Chicago's Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture. Recently, he was a 2007 Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow and a 2009 Aspen Institute Health Forum Fellow. Thomas holds an AB from Dartmouth College and an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Basu, of Naperville, Ill., is a radiologist at Stanford University and the Palo Alto VA. At Stanford, he is Course Director of Health Policy, Finance and Economics, and lectures nationally and internationally on these areas of expertise. He was named the consultant physician of the year at Stanford in 2009, where he served as chief resident physician in 2008. He also received the AMA's National Excellence in Medicine Award for Leadership in 2007.
Basu co-founded ExtendMD, a web portal designed to enhance outpatient care. He serves as a business consultant to medical centers, Fortune 500 companies and venture capital firms. He founded STARS Luncheon, a non-profit designed to support lower socioeconomic children for future college and career success.
In Chicago, he graduated with honors and served in the highest leadership roles on the Dean's Council in medical school, as president of his business school cohort and led the Adolescent Substance Abuse Program. Basu attended the University of Illinois on a National Merit Scholarship, where he graduated with honors in mechanical engineering and served on the University Senate. He also served on admissions committees at the University of Chicago and Stanford University.
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart
