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Harry L. Metcalf, MD '60 & BA '56
Dr. Richard T. Sarkin Award for Excellence in Teaching
By Barbara A. Byers
Release Date: March 28, 2011 This content is archived.
Harry L. Metcalf, MD '60 & BA '56, has had a long association with the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, achieving the rank of clinical professor of family medicine.
His primary focus on medical students began as director of admissions from 1977-82, when he restructured the process in order to accept more diverse students into the program. Throughout Metcalf's 45 years of practice, he precepted more than 200 students and residents in family medicine not only from UB, but also the Syracuse and Albany medical schools.
Metcalf's greatest pleasure has remained his involvement in teaching medical students and residents in family medicine, as evidenced by his current commitment to the Lighthouse Free Clinic on Buffalo's East Side, where he supervises students and residents.
Since 1982 Metcalf has served on the board of directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), for which he was elected chair in 1986 and president in 1987-88. During his tenure, Metcalf chaired the committee on continuing medical education, testified in Congress on multiple legislative issues, focused his presidency on a national initiative on smoking cessation and laid the groundwork to have medical students and residents represented on the AAFP board. He later served as vice president and president of the AAFP Foundation.
Metcalf has made multiple presentations, written numerous papers and received awards from the School of Medicine and other national groups. Nationally he chaired the Manpower Subcommittee of the Council on Graduate Medical Education and served on the National Hypertension Education Initiative and the National Lipid Education Council. He has been a consultant to the Harvard School of Public Health on the Resource Based Relative Value Scale and the Demonstration Project on Quality Assurance in the Ambulatory Setting. He also served on the board of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Western New York and chaired the committee on Quality Assurance, for which he continues to serve as a consultant.
