Schwend Receives Humanitarian Award from Scoliosis Research Society
Richard Schwend, MD, Director-Orthopaedic Research Program, received the prestigious 2018 Walter P. Blount Humanitarian Award from the Scoliosis Research Society during the organization’s recent annual meeting in Bologna, Italy. The Society’s Humanitarian Award is presented to acknowledge outstanding service to those with spinal deformity, and for generosity to the profession and society.
Dr. Schwend was introduced to global health care early in his career, having served in Liberia West Africa, Romania and Ecuador. He performed 18 years of consecutive service to the children of Ecuador, and is Medical Director of Project Perfect World, Ecuador, which sponsors the Ecuador Spine Project. He has been honored for his work since 2002 with the Ecuador Pediatric Orthopaedic Program at the Roberto Gilbert Hospital for Children in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Dr. Schwend also was a medical officer in the Indian Health Service in Zuni, New Mexico; has served on the Navajo Reservation; and for much of his career has continued to have outreach clinics in Shiprock, New Mexico.
Dr. Schwend is Immediate Past President of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA) and was Chair of the Orthopaedic Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics from 2010-14.
Children’s Mercy Kansas City is an independent, non-profit, 390-bed pediatric health system, providing over half a million patient encounters each year for children from across the country. Children’s Mercy is ranked by U.S. News & World Report in all ten specialties. We have received Magnet® recognition five times for excellence in nursing services. In affiliation with the University of Missouri-Kansas City, our faculty of nearly 800 pediatric specialists and researchers is actively involved in clinical care, pediatric research and educating the next generation of pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists. The Children’s Mercy Research Institute (CMRI) integrates research and clinical care with nationally recognized expertise in genomic medicine, precision therapeutics, population health, health care innovation and emerging infections. In 2021 the CMRI moved into a nine-story, 375,000-square-foot space emphasizing a translational approach to research in which clinicians and researchers work together to accelerate the pace of discovery that enhances care.