Each year we award two $100,000 Sherman Prizes to IBD clinicians, surgeons, researchers and/or academics with extraordinary track records of achievement, making exceptional and pioneering contributions that transform IBD care. Sherman Prize recipients are visionaries driven to solve IBD’s most difficult challenges whose work inspires future innovators. The Sherman Prize is open to individuals who have demonstrated excellence in areas such as those listed below.
Patient Care
Nominees provide outstanding and responsive clinical care, and make strides to improve the physical, emotional and/or psychosocial aspects of treatment:
- Identifying risk factors for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis and improving diagnosis.
- Improving patients’ quality of care and their social and emotional well-being.
- Supporting emerging clinicians to make a significant impact in the field.
- Providing patients with the opportunity to make informed decisions about their care and treatment, as well as comprehensive and culturally appropriate communications tailored to the patient’s needs.
- Providing families and caregivers with information and support.
- Providing outstanding care demonstrating mastery of the clinical management of compassionate and effective treatment of IBD patients.
Medical Research
Nominees perform or lead groundbreaking scientific research in pursuit of treatment advances that improve the lives of people with IBD and could lead to prevention, remission and cures:
- Studying risk factors for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis in an effort to improve diagnosis.
- Determining the environmental and/or genetic factors that increase the risk of Crohn’s and colitis.
- Deepening our understanding of the multiple disease processes under the IBD umbrella.
- Developing tools that will predict the aggressiveness of the disease, whether complications will develop, and how individual patients will respond to particular therapies.
- Studying new medications and treatments that induce remission and prevent relapse.
- Discovering ways to prevent complications.
- Encouraging multidisciplinary research focused on new technologies and systems to treat and cure Crohn’s and colitis.
- Predicting and preventing the onset of these diseases in high-risk individuals.
Public Service and Education
Nominees go above and beyond in developing others, raising awareness, and advocating for improvements in approaches and policies affecting IBD patients and caregivers:
- Mentoring, training and inspiring the next generation of IBD specialists to develop meaningful careers in IBD.
- Leading communication, education and advocacy efforts to:
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- Inform the public of the risk factors for the diseases.
- Raise awareness of the environmental and genetic factors that enhance the risk or progression of the diseases.
- Effectively educate patients and professionals about IBD.
- Raise awareness of new medications and treatments that induce remission and prevent relapse of the diseases.
- Advance and promote public policies that make positive improvements in access to quality care.
Eligible individuals must live and work in the U.S., having accomplished their greatest achievements in the past decade, with greater emphasis placed on accomplishments in the last few years.
Nominees who aren’t selected can be nominated again in coming years with a new submission that highlights further achievements.