I. Jerome Flance, M.D., emeritus professor of clinical medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received the Ralph O. Claypoole Sr. Memorial Award from the American College of Physicians.
The award recognizes an outstanding practitioner of internal medicine who has devoted his or her career to the care of patients. The recipient is a clinician highly respected by colleagues for clinical skills and someone who has been a role model as a member of a clinical faculty of a department of medicine.
Flance, a renowned physician, educator and pulmonary disease specialist, is one of only two St. Louis physicians to receive the Claypoole award. The other St. Louis recipient was Michael M. Karl, M.D., Flance’s partner for many years at the Maryland Medical Group. Karl received the Claypoole award in 1990.
Flance served on the clinical faculty of the School of Medicine for 53 years. He also has had an interest in working with the underserved.
After joining Washington University’s clinical faculty in 1944, Flance became director of the University’s Pulmonary Service at the St. Louis Hospital and an attending physician at both Jewish and Barnes hospitals. In 1953, he initiated a hospital-based home health-care program at Jewish Hospital, serving as its director for 11 years. During that time, he started the first formal home-care program for tuberculosis in the United States.
Flance practiced at the Maryland Medical Group for 43 years. He also was medical director of the St. Louis Lung Association, president of the medical staff of Jewish Hospital and a member of the St. Louis Lung Physicians to Combat Air Pollution.
Upon retiring from medical practice in 1998 at age 87, Flance became the special associate for community redevelopment at the medical school, representing the Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corp. in its efforts to revitalize the Forest Park Southeast community. He continued in that capacity until 2006. He now works to bring better education and health services to underserved children and adults in north St. Louis.
Flance, a member of the School of Medicine’s National Council, earned a bachelor’s degree in 1931 and a medical degree in 1935, both from Washington University.
In honor of his many accomplishments, the School of Medicine gave Flance an honorary doctor of humanities degree in 2002 and The Second Century Award in 1994. The School of Medicine also established the Rosemary and I. Jerome Flance Professorship of Pulmonary Medicine in 1995.
The American College of Physicians is a national organization of internists — physicians who specialize in the prevention, detection and treatment of illnesses in adults. It is the largest medical-specialty organization and second-largest physician group in the United States.
Washington University School of Medicine’s 2,100 employed and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked third in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.