The Andrew Levitt Academic Resident of the Year

During Dr. Levitt’s illustrious days as the Research Director, Highland’s EM program developed an international reputation as a source of reliable, practice-changing research in emergency medicine.  Highland helped usher in the era of professional EM, generating specialty-specific findings and practice standards. In recognition of this contribution, in 2007, the Levitt family joined with the Department of Emergency Medicine at Highland to bestow an annual award to the Highland EM resident with the greatest accomplishments in research.  

To be eligible for the award, a resident must have submitted for publication as first author of an original paper. Beyond this minimum – an extremely high bar in itself – the resident must demonstrate contributions to the research program in general, through participation in our monthly Research in Progress meetings, providing help and counsel to others engaged in research, and by the active use of up-to-date published findings at the bedside.

2024 Recipient: Megan Heeney, MD

The Levitt Center is pleased to announce that Megan Heeney, MD, has been named the Andrew Levitt Academic Resident of the Year for 2024. Megan grew up in Omaha, NE. She completed a BA at Saint Louis University and remained in St. Louis for 10 years after. Megan spent that time managing a house of hospitality for women and children, working as a community organizer, and facilitating a community behavioral health outreach team. These experiences coalesced into Megan returning to school to practice medicine, focusing on enhancing care for patients experiencing behavioral health emergencies and housing insecurity. She graduated from Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in 2020 and completed Emergency Medicine Residency at Highland Hospital in 2024. 

While in residency at Highland, Megan worked on QI projects with multidisciplinary teams in multiple areas. She worked to establish a behavioral emergency response team (BERT): facilitating simulation sessions, education sessions for providers, and interdisciplinary de-escalation training. She continues to work on a mixed-method analysis of BERT implementation. She worked with the ContraceptED team to improve reproductive health care access in the emergency department. Her research interests include improving access to care at safety net hospitals for patients who use drugs, studying outcomes of XR buprenorphrine initiation in the ED, implementation of behavioral emergency response teams, interventions to increase access to MAT, and harm reduction supports for patients presenting to care due to traumatic injuries. 

Currently, Megan is in the inaugural addiction medicine fellowship at AHS Highland Hospital. She is a 2024-2026 Research in Addiction Medicine Scholar (RAMS) funded by NIDA. She continues to work clinically in the AHS emergency departments and enjoys traveling, board games, and card games.

Previous Winners:

2023: Tara Benesch, MD, MS Climate & Health fellow at University of Colorado

2022: Amy Liang, MD, MS Emergency medicine fellow at UCSF

2021: Sally Mahmoud-Werthmann, MD Clinical Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine, Stanford Medicine; former Fellow in Social Emergency Medicine at Stanford Medicine

2020: Amelia Breyre, MD Emergency medicine physican at Highland Hospital

2019: Kevin Gardner, MD Emergency medicine and critical care physician at Highland Hospital

2018: Eben Clattenburg, MD, MPH Attending emergency medicine physician at Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation

2017: Tarak Trivedi, MD Emergency Medicine Physician at County of Santa Clara Health System and UCLA Health; former Fellow at RAND-UCLA’s National Clinician Scholars program, focusing on behavioral emergencies

2016: Lia Losonczy, MD, MPH Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Anesthesia and Critical Care ,The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences

2015: Terry Ahern, MD Staff physician at Rogue Regional Medical Center, Medford, OR

and

Erik Anderson, MD Faculty at Highland Emergency; former Fellow in Social Emergency Medicine at Stanford Medicine

2014: Brian Johnston, MD, MPH Staff physician at Valley Medical Center, Renton, WA; former Ultrasound Fellow at Highland Hospital

2013: Oron Frenkel, MD, MS Faculty at University of British Columbia; former Ultrasound Fellow at Highland Hospital

2012: Matthew Rehrer, MD  Staff physician at Kaiser Oakland

2011: Andrew Herring, MD  Faculty at Highland Emergency: former Ultrasound Fellow at Highland Hospital

2010: Jonathan Rosenson, MD   Staff physician at Kaiser Oakland

2009: Brita Zaia, MD  Staff physician at Kaiser San Francisco

2008: Samantha Honner, MD Staff physician at Alta Bates/Summit Medical Center

2007: Nate Teismann, MD  Faculty at University of California, San Francisco; former Ultrasound Fellow at Highland Hospital