First Indiana University Faculty Named to Otis R. Bowen Professorship
INDIANAPOLIS, IN--Deborah I. Allen, M.D., has been named the Otis R. Bowen Professor of Family Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Allen is the first to hold this chair created in recognition of Dr. Bowen's contributions to family medicine at IU and throughout the country. Dr. Allen also will become director of the Bowen Research Center at IU; the center is a collaborative program between the IU Schools of Medicine and Public and Environment Affairs.
To undertake her new responsibilities, Dr. Allen will step down as chair of the Department of Family Medicine, effective August 31, 1998. During her nine-year tenure as chairman, she has established a curriculum change designed to increase medical students' exposure to family medicine. She implemented a clerkship in family medicine for third-year medical students that took them into primary care practices throughout the state and developed a thriving residency program through consolidation with Methodist Hospital's residency program. Since the curriculum changes, the number of IU School of Medicine graduates choosing to enter family medicine residencies has increased from 10.5 percent in 1992 to just over 21 percent this March (1998).
Dr. Allen was instrumental in initiating a multi-million dollar campaign to establish the Otis R. Bowen Research Center at the IU in 1992. It has focused its research goals on improving the delivery of health care to under served communities and the impact of changes in reimbursement on quality of health care. These goals were in keeping with the initiatives spearheaded by Dr. Bowen during his tenure as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Bowen Center is the first endowed research center in a family medicine department in the country. Its faculty has focused on research in preventive health, rural health and delivery of health care services during the past decade. As the new director, her goals are to recruit new research faculty to develop a statewide practice-based research network and to develop the center's research infrastructure. She also plans to develop a stronger research and mentoring program to support the American United Life/Bowen Research Center Scholars.
Dr. Allen was elected the first women president of the Indiana Academy of Family Physicians in 1986 and was recognized by the American Academy of Family Physicians in 1992 with the Thomas W. Johnson Award in honor of her outstanding contributions to family practice education. She is a graduate of the IU School of Medicine and of Purdue University. She completed her family medicine residency training at Methodist Hospital of Indiana which is now a partner in Clarian Health.
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