The Edward H. Kass Clinical Award is given annually to one fellow from each of the Massachusetts training programs in infectious diseases.  The fellows are selected by their sponsoring institutions in recognition of attributes representing the ideals of infectious disease clinical practice, including clinical acumen, commitment to care, and advocacy for patients and public health.

 

The award is named in honor of Dr. Edward Kass (1917-1990).  Dr. Kass, the William Ellery Channing Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, had a long and highly productive career and was the founding director of the Channing Laboratory at Boston City Hospital (now the Channing Division of Network Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital).  He made major contributions in the areas of respiratory infections, toxic shock syndrome, hypertension and epidemiology, and especially in the study of urinary tract infections, establishing the parameter of significant bacteriuria. 

 

Dr. Kass also was a master organizer, editor and historian, serving as first secretary of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and founder of the International Congress on Infectious Diseases, editor of the Journal of Infectious Diseases and founding editor of the Reviews in Infectious Diseases (now Clinical Infectious Diseases).  He brought his organizing talent to the fledgling Massachusetts Infectious Diseases Society creating the organization as it exists today.