2008 Alpha
Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teaching Award
David W. Nierenberg, M.D.
Dartmouth Medical School
David Nierenberg is one of those teachers who is a stickler for
good penmanship—though perhaps not in the traditional sense
of the word. As part of his "don't take any gifts from industry"
policy, he regularly hosts "dirty pen swaps" to rid students of
drug company favors and, according to one source, proudly replaces
them with skinny, 39-cent ones that simply state "prescribe the
best drug for your patient."
For more than 25 years, this "educational star," as students refer
to him, has shone brightly in the Dartmouth Medical School (DMS)
firmament. Today, Dr. Nierenberg is Edward Tulloh Krumm Professor
of Medicine and of pharmacology and toxicology and senior associate
dean for medical education at DMS. He is also chief of the division
of clinical pharmacology at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and
has served as an attending and consulting physician at the Veterans
Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, Vt. Prior
to joining Dartmouth, he was chief medical resident at Stanford
Medical Center.
Known for the clarity and passion of his lectures, Dr. Nierenberg
has received several teaching awards for his ability to make even
the most complex pharmacological issues accessible to all learners
through his engaging style. And Dr. Nierenberg's teaching legacy
is evidenced by the school receiving more letters from grateful
alumni about him than almost any other faculty member.
Recruited by DMS to establish a division of clinical pharmacology,
Dr. Nierenberg has become a driving force behind numerous changes
and innovations in the school's curriculum. His development of the
fourth-year required curriculum course, "Clinical Pharmacology and
Therapeutics," is widely recognized for its excellence and is a
model for similar courses at other medical schools nationwide. Additionally,
he helped revise DMS's second-year curriculum by improving and redesigning
the "Scientific Basis of Medicine," a course that is referred to
as the school's basic science "gem."
A leader in innovative teaching, Dr. Nierenberg also helped design
the Dartmouth Medical Encounter Documentation System, a software
program that helps students monitor their progress in acquiring
the six core competencies in each clinical clerkship. Using this
software, (believed to be the first of its kind in this country
to be useful this broadly in all core clerkships) students can document
their learning experiences with patients and faculty during all
and receive feedback from preceptors.
At the national level, Dr. Nierenberg has been actively involved
in the AAMC, serving five years on its Executive Council, and in
various capacities within the Council of Academic Societies (CAS),
including six years on the CAS administrative board. Most recently,
he led a study and report for the AAMC Medical School Objectives
Project, "Contemporary Issues in Medicine: Education in Safe and
Effective Prescribing Practices."
After receiving his B.A. degree from Harvard College, Dr. Nierenberg
studied in England on an Oxford University fellowship. He returned
to earn his M.D. degree at Harvard Medical School, and then completed
his residency training in internal medicine at what is now Beth
Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He completed his training
with a fellowship in clinical pharmacology at the University of
California, San Francisco.
Dr. Nierenberg has served as a peer-reviewer for numerous journals,
including the "New England Journal of Medicine" and the "Journal
of the American Medical Association," and as an associate editor
for "Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics." He also coauthored
or co-edited three clinical pharmacology textbooks and has published
75 original research papers, all of which—one may presume—were written
with "clean" pens.
About the Alpha
Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teaching Award
The Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher
Awards were established by the AOA medical honor society in 1988
to provide national recognition to faculty members who have distinguished
themselves in medical student education. The award is named for
long-time AOA executive secretary Robert J. Glaser, M.D.
Find out more about the Alpha
Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teaching Award.
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