Lucy Candib, MD, professor of family medicine & community health, was honored in Prague as the 2013 recipient of World Organization of Family Doctors’ (WONCA) Five Star Doctor Award. She was selected from among family physicians worldwide. The award was conferred at WONCA’s World Conference, which was held in the Czech Republic in June. In December, Dr. Candib was selected as the WONCA North American Five Star Doctor.
Chosen by the WONCA council, the recipient of the worldwide Five Star Doctor Award is a family physician who has made a significant impact on the health of individuals and communities through personal contributions to health care and the profession. Successful nominees are role models who are recognized as holistic care providers, ethical and effective decision makers, communicators, trusted community leaders and team members.
WONCA was founded in 1972 to improve the quality of life of the people of the world by fostering high standards of care in general practice and family medicine. Its membership now comprises 300,000 family doctors from 126 member organizations in 102 countries who promote its values, including respect for universal human rights and gender equity.
Dr. Candib has practiced at the federally qualified Family Health Center of Worcester (FHCW) since she began her residency there in 1974 after graduating from Harvard Medical School. Her pioneering achievements include being one of the first practitioners in Worcester to introduce group medical visits in chronic care management, conducted at FHCW for English- and Spanish-speaking patients with diabetes since 2001. Upon becoming a UMMS faculty member in 1976, Candib added the training of primary care physicians to her responsibilities at FHCW, one of three sites for the Department of Family Medicine & Community Health’s Worcester Medicine Residency program.
Candib’s numerous prior honors include the 2010 UMass President’s Public Service Award; the Worcester District Medical Society’s 2006 A. Jane Fitzpatrick Community Service Award; and selection as one of 300 American women physicians featured in the National Library of Medicine’s 2005 “Changing the Face of Medicine” project. She is the author of Medicine and the Family: A Feminist Perspective, and co-editor with Sara G. Shields, MD, of Women-Centered Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth.
