TVHS Staff Physician Dr. Alvin Powers Receives the Top VA Award in Research
Dr. Alvin C. Powers, a Tennessee Valley Healthcare System (TVHS) Staff Physician, earned the prestigious William S. Middleton Award, which recognizes outstanding scientific contributions and achievements in biomedical and bio-behavioral research relevant to the health care of Veterans.
Established in 1960 by the Veterans Health Administration and the Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development Service, the Middleton Award is the organization's highest honor for outstanding achievement in biomedical research, according to VA.
The award recognizes Powers' diabetes research on pancreatic islets and the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. Loss or dysfunction of these cells contributes to all forms of diabetes, which has significant relevance to VA’s patient population.
“Research sponsored by VA is very important in improving the health care we deliver to Veterans,” Powers said. “I am honored to be both a VA physician and researcher since VA research and patient care are synergistic.”
Powers was nominated for the Middleton Award based on his contributions to VA research and his discoveries that have provided new insight into the pathogenesis of human diabetes, his leadership of diabetes research, and his mentoring of VA physicians and scientists, according to TVHS Associate Chief of Staff of Research and Development Dr. Ray Stokes Peebles.
Powers, an internationally recognized diabetes researcher, joined the Nashville VA Medical Center in 1991 when he received a VA Career Development Award. He has held continuous VA Merit Review grant funding since 1993, with his current grant focused on islet alterations in Type 2 diabetes. Powers was named a senior clinical scientist investigator by the VA Office of Research and Development in 2020.
Powers is chair of the Advisory Committee for Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Care at TVHS and formerly served as chief of endocrinology at the Nashville VA Medical Center. Currently, he is also chief of the Vanderbilt Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, director of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Center, and director of the National Institutes of Health-funded Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center.
“This award recognizes the work of my colleagues with whom I have had the privilege of working,” Powers said.
Peebles acknowledges the importance of this accomplishment to TVHS research and development and Powers research for Veterans.
“This award will increase the visibility of research programs at TVHS,” Peebles said.
Not only is this award important to TVHS, but also is significant to the Veteran Integrated Service Network (VISN) 9, according to Peebles. Peebles believes that receiving this “high honor” allows VISN 9 to stand out among the over 100 research services in VA health care.
The Middleton Award has a long history of representing medical endeavors for Veterans. In fact, few TVHS physicians have received the award in the past.
This year, the Office of Research and Development awarded two recipients for the award. The other recipient of the 2023 Middleton Award is Dr. Paula Bickford of the James A. Haley VA Medical Center in Tampa, Florida.