Robert M. Centor, M.D.Robert M. Centor, M.D., has been awarded the Jane F. Desforges Distinguished Teacher Award by the American College of Physicians, a national organization of internists.
Established by ACP’s Board of Regents in 1968, the award is bestowed upon a recipient of Mastership in the College who has demonstrated the ennobling qualities of a great teacher as judged by the acclaim and accomplishments of former students who have been inspired and have achieved positions of leadership in the field of medical education, primarily as teachers.
Centor is Professor Emeritus at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and staff physician at the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He served the UAB School of Medicine as director of the Division of General Internal Medicine (1993-2008), interim dean of the Tuscaloosa Campus (1995-1997), and dean of the Huntsville Campus (2004-2017). In addition Centor served as president of the Society for Medical Decision Making, the Association of Chiefs of General Internal Medicine, and the Society for General Internal Medicine. He served as a past Chair of ACP’s Board of Regents. He is a recipient of Mastership in the American College of Physicians, which recognizes outstanding and extraordinary career accomplishments and notable contributions to medicine.
Centor’s research interests have focused in the area of medical decision-making, medical education and clinical reasoning. He has published widely in the diagnosis and management of adult sore throats – including seminal work on Fusobacterium necrophorum. A clinical decision rule for predicting bacterial pharyngitis now bears his name. He has 127 peer-reviewed manuscripts and dozens of invited presentations. He has made significant contributions in the scholarship of education, including successful ward-attending rounds. He has co-authored multiple clinical problem-solving exercises and clinical vignettes. Most important, he has mentored, advised and sponsored countless students, residents, fellows and faculty – locally, nationally and internationally.
Centor is the recipient of the most important teaching awards at UAB (Argus Awards from students, Presidential Award, UAB Alumni Lifetime Teaching Award) and the Society of General Internal Medicine (Robert Glaser Award). He is an innovator, and the inaugural host of ACP’s “Annals On Call” (60 episodes) and a frequent guest of medical podcasts (The Curbsiders, Clinical Problem Solvers). He has also developed a weekly Zoom conference, (un)Remarkable Labs.