John Mahoney
As a champion and role model for cultural competence and global thinking throughout his healthcare career, John Mahoney, MD is honored with the 4th annual Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement. The Award, announced by the University Center for International Studies, recognizes a current University of Pittsburgh faculty member for contributions to furthering international education. Mahoney is an associate professor of emergency medicine and associate dean for medical education at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “Dr. Mahoney’s career is exemplary of a physician who has capitalized on his international experiences for the benefit of his medical students and the University,” said Dr. Jagdish Sheth (Business ’62G, ’66G), University of Pittsburgh alumnus who, with his wife Madhuri, promotes global thinking and international endeavors through the Sheth Family Foundation. “It’s thrilling for me to see how he has integrated his expertise in medical curriculum development and educational technology with his passion for cultural competency and understanding allowing him to inspire a new generation of doctors and nurses.”
Mahoney’s international education activities are extensive: Under the umbrella of the Pitt program ‘Passport to Care,’ he developed specialized curricula for medical trainees to undertake long-term or just-in-time instruction in a range of languages and aspects of foreign cultures while undertaking their medical studies He is a lead facilitator for the partnership with Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan to create a US-style medical curriculum and develop the conceptual plans for a state-of-the-art medical and nursing education building. The school welcomed its inaugural class in 2015. He continues to lead the efforts to prepare faculty and the clinical facilities He recently developed a tri-lateral research collaboration—with colleagues at Kuwait University and University College Dublin—to assess differences in preferences and challenges in patient-physician communications among these dissimilar cultures He is involved in developing new affiliations between the School of Medicine and leading medical schools in Europe and South America to broaden the opportunities for medical student exchanges while targeting specific educational objectives (e.g., learning about non-US healthcare delivery systems).
He works closely with leaders at the Association of American Medical Colleges to further develop the efforts of their Global Health Learning Opportunities program; plans include launching a new national survey of US medical schools on existing partnerships and collaborations between US and international medical schools “In John Mahoney we have a perfect combination of medical educator expertise meshed with diplomacy and cultural sensitivity that has allowed him to be very effective in incorporating an international dimension into a Pitt medical education,” said Ariel Armony, senior director of international programs and director of the University Center for International Studies at Pitt. “His early work in Russia and Germany primed him for success when he worked with colleagues in locations as far flung as Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Canada and Italy.”
Meet Dr. John Mahoney.