Updated November 2011

The Dr. Linda Laubenstein Annual HIV Clinical Excellence Award

Purpose of the Award

The New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute established the Dr. Linda Laubenstein Annual HIV Clinical Excellence Award in 1992. The award honors those physicians who, besides providing the highest quality of clinical care for people with HIV/AIDS, are also distinguished by their compassionate manner and their wholehearted involvement in the ongoing effort to achieve comprehensive care for persons with HIV/AIDS.

The award was created to recognize the doctors who were there early in the epidemic; to applaud those who are educating others about emerging changes in the available scientific research and clinical information about HIV/AIDS; to acknowledge those who have participated in the process of establishing medical standards for HIV care; and to commend those physicians who serve both as clinical leaders and as compassionate care providers with each individual patient. The Laubenstein Award represents an opportunity for the AIDS Institute to highlight the contributions of physicians or other clinicians whose record of service has been extraordinary and to publicly thank them for their accomplishments.

Linda Laubenstein, MD, 1947-1992

The HIV Clinical Excellence Award was established in 1992 in memory of Dr. Laubenstein, a Manhattan physician, to honor her pioneering work and outstanding contribution to the quality of AIDS care in the early years of the epidemic. In 198l, Dr. Laubenstein treated many of the country’s first AIDS patients. With Dr. Alvin Friedman-Kien, she co-authored the first medical journal paper on the rapidly increasing incidence of Kaposi’s sarcoma among gay men and, in 1983, organized the first large medical conference on AIDS.

Although Dr. Laubenstein used a wheelchair from the age of 5 as a result of childhood polio and severe asthma, she devoted most of her private practice to her own exemplary brand of AIDS care, making house calls and emergency room visits at any hour, speaking out to urge social organizations and government to respond to the AIDS epidemic, and founding an organization to employ AIDS patients.

About the AIDS Institute

Created in 1983 by legislative mandate to coordinate New York State’s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute strives to prevent HIV infection and improve the quality of life of those infected and affected by HIV. Toward that end, the Institute focuses on insuring that people with HIV/AIDS receive high quality health care and supportive services. The AIDS Institute is committed to assuring that there is ongoing development of the health care infrastructure so that people with HIV/AIDS have access to a coordinated system of health care and services including access to clinicians with expertise in HIV care and state-of-the-art treatment guidelines. In keeping with these goals and principles, the AIDS Institute is pleased to continue its tradition of presentation of the Dr. Linda Laubenstein Annual HIV Clinical Excellence Award to those clinicians who have made unparalleled contributions to HIV care and prevention.