Dr. James started her path to rheumatology through an Outstanding Student Award. Dr. James also provided testimony supporting the NIH at the Nobel Laureates’ Hearing for the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee.
Paulding Phelps Award
Sharad Lakhanpal, MBBS, MD, senior partner, Rheumatology Associates, Dallas, and clinical professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, is the recipient of this year’s Paulding Phelps Award, bestowed upon a clinical rheumatologist for outstanding service to patients, community and the practice of medicine.
“Receiving the Paulding Phelps Award from the ACR is a true honor. Dr. Phelps was the last president of the American Rheumatism Association before the name change to American College of Rheumatology. He was a role model for young aspiring clinicians as I was completing my rheumatology training. To receive the award named after him is very special and meaningful for me personally,” says Dr. Lakhanpal.
Dr. Lakhanpal graduated from King George’s Medical College, Lucknow, India, and completed his internal medicine residency at Memorial Hospital, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, followed by rheumatology training at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
Dr. Lakhanpal has enjoyed being a clinician for over 35 years in an academic private practice setting. In addition to taking care of patients, he has spent time educating and training rheumatology fellows and internal medicine residents at the medical school as well as those rotating through the practice. He is an investigator at Metroplex Clinical Research Center, Dallas, and has participated in several research projects. He has also been active in organized medicine, with special interest in governmental and regulatory agencies’ policies and their impacts on patient care and the practice of medicine.
He started the Rheumatology Society of North Texas and later led development of the State of Texas Association of Rheumatologists. He has served as a volunteer on various committees and task forces of the ACR for over 30 years. He served as chair of the Government Affairs Committee and later as a member of the ACR Board of Directors and as the ACR’s 80th president. He has served on the editorial boards and editorial review panels of various medical journals.
Dr. Lakhanpal has received the American Rheumatism Association’s Senior Rheumatology Scholar Award, the Philip Showalter Hench Award at the Mayo Clinic and the American Rheumatism Association’s Fellows Award. He is a Master of the ACR and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.
