Harvard Medical School educator and mentor David Hirsh has received a 2026 Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
The awards were established to recognize gifted teachers who have made outstanding contributions to medical education. Each of this year’s four awardees will receive a $7,500 prize, and the nominating institutions will each receive a grant of up to $3,500.
Hirsh, the new HMS co-director of the Harvard–MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and advisory dean and director of the Irving M. London Society, was honored for his significant and far-reaching contributions to the field of medical education.
“Through wide-ranging scholarship, Dr. Hirsh has advanced the practice and pedagogy of medicine significantly,” the AAMC award citation read.
AAMC cited as Hirsh’s largest contribution his co-founding of the HMS-Cambridge Integrated Clerkship (CIC), an educational design grounded in the empirical science of learning, that is believed to be the world’s first academic, specialist-based longitudinal integrated clerkship.
The CIC’s underlying principle of educational continuity, defined by Hirsh and colleagues in an article published Feb. 22, 2007, in the New England Journal of Medicine, is now a core framework in medical education and has been adopted by an estimated 20 percent of medical schools in the United States and more than 40 percent in Canada and Australia. The CIC influenced two landmark works in medical education and directly supported the Liaison Committee on Medical Education’s accreditation processes in the United States and Canada.
In 2007, Hirsh co-founded the Consortium for Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships, a multinational educational research and advocacy organization. He has served as visiting professor and academic consultant to help found such clerkships at dozens of medical schools.
“We are so proud that Dave is being recognized by the AAMC with this prestigious teaching award, as he has long been one of the most celebrated educators and innovators at Harvard Medical School,” said Bernard Chang, HMS dean for medical education. “Our medical students, as well as those around the country and the world, have all benefited from his visionary contributions to the design of clinical clerkships.”
A guiding light in academic medicine
Lauded by the AAMC as a highly respected teacher and mentor, Hirsh has taught extensively during his 30 years at HMS across the School’s curriculum, and he has received honors for his efforts annually from 1999-2020 and twice in 2022. He has provided academic, career, and research mentoring to more than 100 HMS students, residents, and faculty.
Hirsh has taught seven HMS courses, site-directed three, and started two new ones. He co-chaired the committee that created the School’s master of medical sciences in medical education degree.
The award committee also praised Hirsh as a guiding light in academic medicine, noting that he has been invited to present on medical education nationally and internationally and that his publications in the field of medical education have had wide-ranging influence on other institutions.
He created and has directed HMS’ standardized patient Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) program, for which he has co-authored 18 patient cases. His work has influenced the creation of OSCEs at other schools, and he co-led a conference to support the creation of Taiwan’s national OSCE.
An exemplar of excellence
Hirsh is HMS professor of medicine and associate dean for undergraduate medical education at Cambridge Health Alliance, director of the HMS Academy Fellowship in Medical Education and Scholarship, and associate director of the HMS Academy.
He has received dozens of awards, spanning excellence in teaching, mentorship, research, clinical practice, and public service, including the 2007 Chair Award (with Barbara Ogur) from the National Association of Public Hospitals.
Hirsh earned a BA in history summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1988 and an MD from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 1992, where he was honored with a faculty Alpha Omega Alpha designation. He completed postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan, where he was named chief resident.
He and other AAMC President Award Program winners will be honored at the AAMC annual meeting this November in Anaheim, California.
Adapted from an AAMC press release and nomination materials.
