Junior Faculty Recognized with Milton W. Hamolsky Award at National SGIM Meeting

Three faculty from the Division of General Medicine were recognized at the 2026 National Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) annual meeting for their outstanding research presentations.

Adam Markovitz, MD, PhD, and Sumit Agarwal, MD, MPH, PhD, were awarded the Milton W. Hamolsky Award, and Alexander Chaitoff, MD, MPH, was named one of only eight finalists.

The Milton W. Hamolsky Award recognizes junior faculty within the first two years of their first faculty appointment who deliver exceptional scientific abstract presentations at the SGIM annual meeting. Awards are given based on participant evaluations and are endowed by the Zlinkoff Fund for Medical Education. Out of all submissions, eight finalists are selected and of those, three are awarded. At this year’s meeting, three out of the eight finalists came from the Division of General Medicine and two received the award. All three, Drs. Markovitz, Agarwal, and Chaitoff, presented in the same Michigan Abstract Session. 

• Adam Markovitz, MD, PhD (winner)
  “REACH for the Best, Leave the Rest: Selection and Coding in Medicare’s Newest ACO Model”

  Dr. Markovitz’s research focuses on designing and testing new approaches on how we pay for and deliver primary care. His work aims to answer questions such as how government policies that link financial incentives to quality and costs impact patient care.

• Sumit Agarwal, MD, MPH, PhD (winner)
  “Cash Transfers and Birth Outcomes: A Population-Based, Quasi-Experimental Study of the Rx Kids Unconditional Cash Prescription During Pregnancy and Infancy” 

  Dr. Agarwal’s research examines how policies such as Medicaid expansion, minimum wage laws, and cash transfer programs can improve economic security - which is increasingly being recognized as a key determinant of health. He is also the lead author on the JAMA Pediatrics study for RX Kids, the nation’s first community-wide prenatal and infant cash prescription program. 

• Alex Chaitoff, MD, MPH (finalist)
  "Assessing Associations of Three Types of Higher-Risk Medication Use and Mortality in Older Adults”

  Dr. Chaitoff’s research focuses on optimizing medication use in older adults by better understanding how age and frailty influence the risks and benefits of treatments. He also investigates low-cost, time-efficient strategies to increase evidence-based prescribing in general medicine settings.

Congratulations to Drs. Agarwal, Markovitz, and Chaitoff on this recognition!