Grants & Awards

Vargas Awards

 Description |  Eligibility | Guidelines

Description

Purpose
The purpose of the American Association for Hand Surgery shall be to foster and to promote the highest quality of hand care through the development and sponsorship of educational programs related to the hand and the upper extremity, through communications with health care professionals and the public, and through the endowment of research.

This award is an outgrowth of the AAHS's mission statement. Its intent is to foster an exchange of educational ideas between therapists in this organization and in the host country to result in improved patient care for upper extremity problems.

Grant
This grant is named in honor of Dr. Miguel Vargas, a Hand Surgeon who practiced in Puerto Rico and was an international emissary for education.

A grant reimbursing up to $4,000 of travel expenses will be made the award recipient. The recipient will be notified by mail and publicly announced at the AAHS Annual Meeting.

Chosen Site

2010 Vargas Award Trip
The site for the 2010 trip will be in the Republic of Armenia at the Arabkir Joint Medical Center. Davit Abrahamyan MD PhD and Hovik Piranyan PT OT from the center will be working with the AAHS surgeon/therapist team.

Hani Matloub MD will be serving as the AAHS host physician. The Vargas Award Committee decided not to call for applications and has elected Paula Galaviz, OTR/L, CHT to be the therapist who will be participating on the team for this trip. Ms. Galaviz was responsible for bringing the petition from Armenia to the Committee. She was awarded the Vargas Award in 2004 along with Sharon Dest, PT CHT but became ill and was unable to complete the trip.

The Vargas Award Committee decided to fund Ms. Galaviz for the 2010 trip to Armenia since she was not able to complete the trip in 2004 as well as for her relations with the Center in Armenia.