WASHINGTON, DC—MHS plans to honor female physicians for the second straight year with its “Building Stronger Female Physician Leaders in the MHS” award. The award recognizes women who have made significant contributions to medicine and/or who have served as exemplary role models for other female physicians.

Maureen O Viall, chief human capital officer for the MHS, said that the award idea came from a committee of female military physicians that assessed what could be done to attract female medical school graduates to serve in the military healthcare system. “With the increased numbers of females applying to and being accepted by medical schools nationwide, there has been a surge of renewed interest in what we can do as a military health system to recruit uniform wearing, or military physicians, from the rank of females that are graduating from our medical schools.”

According to Viall, there was considerable interest in the award when it debuted. One outcome has been the consideration of other ideas to attract and support female physicians in the military.

The 2011 award will be presented at the MHS conference held in January and will be given to a junior officer in the Navy, Army, and Air Force, and one MHS-wide senior officer winner. Nominations for the award were due by October 8, 2010, to the service points of contact. Each candidate will be vetted through her particular service chain prior to overall consideration, according to MHS.

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