Hanson Receives MAFP Award for Contributions to Family Medicine

Duluth Alumnus Oelschlager among five finalists for MAFP Physician of the Year 

St. Paul, April 19, 2007  Harrison Hanson, a University of Minnesota Medical School fourth-year student who spent his first two years on the Duluth campus, today received the Medical Student Award for Contributions to Family Medicine Award from the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians (MAFP).  He was presented with his award during the MAFP Spring Refresher. Those who nominated Hanson described him as a compassionate leader and a dedicated champion of family medicine. 

Keith Oelschlager, M.D., an alumnus of the U of MN Medical School, Duluth Campus was one of five finalists for the MAFP 2007 Family Physician of the Year Award.  Oelschlager is practicing at MinnHealth-Vadnais Heights.  Finalists were selected from a field of 23 family physicians nominated by patients and colleagues.  Dr. Deborah Dittberner and Dr. Craig Solberg, alumni of the University of Minnesota Medical School, and Dr. Paul Bergstrand also were nominated.   Dr. David Agerter, Kasson, received the Family Physician of the Year award.

The Medical Student Award recognizes a fourth-year medical student for family medicine activities on a local, community, medical school, state or national level.  Candidates are typically nominated by fellow students and/or teachers.  

Hanson’s volunteer experience includes being chairperson of the Christian Medical Association, as well as leading a group of high school students on a service project to an orphanage in Mexico.  In addition, nine days after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Hanson and another medical student flew to Mississippi to volunteer at an outreach clinic. 

Hanson’s interests include medical missions and international medicine.  In 2001, he volunteered for three months at a rural clinic in Honduras, and earlier this year he completed an extensive one month externship in Ghana, West Africa.

Hanson did his Rural Physician Associate Program training in his hometown of Long Prairie, MN.   He will do his family medicine residency training in Mason City, Iowa

The MAFP is a professional association of approximately 3,000 family physicians, family medicine residents and medical students organized to assist family physicians in providing quality medical care in Minnesota. The MAFP is the largest medical specialty organization in Minnesota and is a state chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians.