ISMA member Michael Mirro, MD, a Fort Wayne cardiologist and chair of the Indiana University Board of Trustees, is the recipient of the 2018 Fort Wayne Medical Society (FWMS) Physician Exemplar Award. Dr. Mirro could not attend the FWMS Annual Dinner on May 8 and accepted the award at the ISMA District 12 meeting on Aug. 15 instead.

Dr. Mirro is a clinical researcher and earned his MD from Indiana University School of Medicine in 1974. He co-directs the Midwest Alliance for Health Education and serves as senior vice president and chief academic research officer of the Parkview Mirro Center for Research and Innovation. Dr. Mirro received the Sagamore of the Wabash award from the state of Indiana and an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

At the May 8 Annual Dinner, then-outgoing FWMS President Tom Kintanar, MD, spoke about Dr. Mirro, who served as one of his mentors. The excerpts of that speech below are reprinted from the Fort Wayne Medicine Quarterly with the kind permission of FWMS.

“As a first-year resident, Dr. Mirro’s dedication to his patients and education were clearly evident. The early morning rounds starting at 6:30 am or an early 5:30 am meeting were the sine qua non. I remember driving home at around 9:15 pm one evening from his Wabash Clinic after having started early that morning at 6:30 am. His dedication to education has always been evident. The Mirro Research Center actually is the culmination of many long hours of unsung heroic efforts which included: EKG classes for the family medicine physicians with his group, Fort Wayne Cardiology; and multiple cardiology research projects, which were inclusive of local students, residents and medical students. His inclusion of the community in this regard led to the creation of the Midwest Alliance for Health Education and, in turn, led to the creation of The Center for Innovation.

“Dr. Mirro was always a stalwart in mentoring to be involved with the political arena. One year at ISMA, we went to dinner and subsequently ended up at an Indianapolis fundraiser for Gov. Evan Bayh and Lt. Gov. Frank O’Bannon. I was duly impressed when both politicians recognized him immediately and spent generous amounts of time with us. Amazing! Dr. Mirro has retired from active practice but still is what I would call a human pinball. He is the current Board Chair of Indiana University and remains active in research and mentoring research. I share that, early in my career, I aspired to duplicate in the family medicine realm what he had moved in his subspecialty of cardiology. But even at this time in my career, I cannot hold a candle to all the achievements realized by Dr. Mirro. His superb service to patients, research, education, political action, community and colleagues is truly what led our Board to award him with the Physician Exemplar.”