MEDICAL CENTER REPORT
06/11/08
Top awards for excellence go to communication office
BY SUSAN IPAKTCHIAN
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Seven medals have gone to the medical school's Office of Communication & Public Affairs for its writing and publications in the annual competition sponsored by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, known as CASE.
This year's competition, the 2008 Circle of Excellence Awards, recognized the writing for Stanford Medicine magazine, which the office publishes three times a year, with the grand gold medal in the category of periodical staff writing for external audiences. The notification letter from CASE said the award is acknowledgement of the magazine's writing as "a best practice that contributes to the advancement profession overall."
The magazine also earned the gold medal in the special-interest magazine category. There were 52 entries, with the judges awarding one gold, one silver and two bronze medals. Judges said Stanford Medicine was the "overwhelming favorite" for the top award, noting that the "covers were though-provoking and the design inside consistent but not repetitive."
Also earning a gold medal were the research/medicine/science news releases produced by the office. From the 22 entries in this category, the judges awarded two gold medals (the other went to Duke University) and one silver medal. Judges said Stanford's news releases had "the wow factor" and an "amazing ability to relate research to the public." It was the second consecutive year that the office's news releases earned a gold medal.
In the "best articles of the year" category, science writer Tracie White earned a silver medal for "Silent inferno," a story about the 2006 heat wave in California that killed 138 people. It appeared in the spring 2007 issue of Stanford Medicine, which focused on the health effects of global climate change. There were 210 entries in the category, and the judges awarded seven gold medals, 10 silvers and nine bronzes.
Two illustrations from the spring 2007 issue of the magazine also earned silver medals in the visual design category, including the magazine cover and the illustration that accompanied "Code green," the issue's main story.
The summer 2007 issue of the magazine, which focused on war's effect on medicine, earned a bronze medal in the periodical special issues category.
CASE also announced an award to the Stanford University News Service for one of its publications, Stanford Report.
CASE is a professional organization for those in the fields of communications, alumni relations and development at educational institutions. It includes more than 3,300 member colleges and universities as well as independent elementary and secondary schools in 54 countries.
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