October 15, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -  Peter G. Anderson, D.V.M, Ph.D, professor of pathology at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham), has received the Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award, from the Association of American Medical Colleges.  The AOA award provides national recognition to faculty members who have distinguished themselves in medical student education.

Anderson is the creator of the Pathology Education Instructional Resource (PEIR), an online repository of more than 40,000 medical images. PEIR has become a popular resource for teaching the "image-rich" discipline of pathology and is now used by most medical schools, as well as users in 150 countries.

Anderson is a proponent of electronic teaching methods and distance learning. He is the creator of a Web site geared at fostering pathology education called GRIPE (Group for Research in Pathology Education). In the same vein as PEIR, GRIPE is an image database offering peer-reviewed testing materials for instructors.

Anderson serves as director of undergraduate pathology education at UAB and is the coordinator of the pre-clerkship phase of the School of Medicine's new curriculum. He is also a founding member of the International Association of Medical Science Educators and serves on its board of directors.

Anderson earned his Ph.D. in experimental pathology at UAB, after earning his D.V.M degree at Washington State University.  He is the author of many research articles, textbook chapters, and abstracts, and serves on the editorial boards of numerous books and Web sites, including BioMed Central, an online database, and Cardiovascular Pathology, the journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology.

The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association representing all 130 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools.