(Boston) –Richard Babayan, MD, was honored recently by the Armenian American Health Professional Organization (AAHPO) for his exceptional contributions to medicine in both the United States and in Armenia. The award was presented by Dr. Aram Chobanian, former dean of Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and president of Boston University. Babayan serves as a professor and chairman of the department of urology at BUSM and chief of urology at Boston Medical Center (BMC).
Babayan first traveled to Armenia in 1989 as part of a medical relief effort and has been deeply involved in the Boston University-Armenia medical partnership program. For the past five years, he has served on the advisory board of the Yerevan State Medical University, helping to revamp the medical curriculum and academic standards for medical education in Armenia.
This is the second of three major professional awards that Babayan will receive this year. In May, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award from the American Urological Association. Next month, Babayan will receive the 2011 Jack Colbert Memorial Award from the Massachusetts Prostate Cancer Coalition (MPCC) for significantly advancing the fight to conquer and cure prostate cancer through research and/or practice.
A graduate of Indiana University School of Medicine, Babayan did his surgical training at Yale-New Haven Hospital before completing a urology residency at University Hospital (now BMC). From 1980 through 1982, he was an American Urological Association Research Scholar performing basic science research in the field of hypothermia at both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and BUSM.
Babayan is a founding member of the Endourological Society and has been actively involved in minimally invasive therapies within the field of urology. He is currently one of three urologic surgeons at BMC using the daVinci Robot for robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy.
He was the New England Section representative to the board of directors of the American Urological Association from 2005 to 2009 and is a member of MPCC's Medical Advisory Committee.