Durham, NC - A team of employees who implemented critical new technology in Duke University Health System and professors who engaged the Duke University community in discussions around race and gender received awards Tuesday for teamwork and diversity, two of Duke's hallmark guiding principles.

The 52-member Maestro Care Ambulatory Group received the Teamwork Award for implementing the new Maestro Care electronic health record system in 33 primary care clinics in July.

Paula D. McClain and Kerry L. Haynie, co-directors of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender in the Social Sciences (REGSS), received the Diversity Award.

President Richard H. Brodhead spoke about the contributions during an awards luncheon Tuesday at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens.

"I love that we give the teamwork award together with the diversity award," Brodhead said. "Once you have assembled a diverse community, you have the precondition for success, but just because you are part of a group doesn't mean you know how to function as a group. We need teams who can figure out how to recognize the different strengths that people bring to an organization. Today, we honor individuals who exemplify these values that are crucial to the life and success of this university."

Diversity Award: Engaging Scholars

If a Duke faculty or graduate student's research interests touch upon race, ethnicity or gender in the social sciences, it has probably come to the attention of Paula D. McClain and Kerry L. Haynie. These two professors in the department of Political Science are co-directers at the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender in the Social Sciences (REGSS).

Since its creation in 2004, REGSS has sponsored lectures and visiting scholars, held five major national conferences, brought six scholars to campus through a distinguished lecture series and created mentoring programs to create and support a community dedicated to examining the complex intersections of race, gender and ethnicity. It also sponsors the Samuel DuBois Cook Postdoctoral Fellowship, which honors the contributions and legacy of Dr. Cook, the first black tenured professor at Duke.

"REGSS has provided the singular university formal platform for celebrating faculty work that crosses these intersections," said Karla Holloway, the James B. Duke Professor of English who nominated REGSS for the Diversity Award. "Perhaps even more critical, it is REGSS that incoming faculty and scholars of color look to for recruitment conversations and the kinds of programming that eventually convince them to come to Duke."

Teamwork Award: An Epic Adventure

In April 2011, Duke approved the purchase and implementation of EpicCare, an electronic health records system to integrate patient records across all of Duke University Health System's clinics and hospitals. The primary care clinics were the first wave of health care settings selected to implement the new system, renamed "Maestro Care."

To implement Maestro Care, the 52-member Maestro Care Ambulatory Group began meeting weekly. The team of computer programmers, clinical liaisons, trainers, physician champions, interface analysts and technical administrators customized the system for Duke's primary care setting, loaded millions of rows of data and trained more than 1,400 users before the critical go-live date.

Karen Rourk, director of the Maestro Care Ambulatory project and nominator of the team, said the support, guidance and technical work during the yearlong implementation was vital to the successful launch of the system to all 33 clinics July 18.

"I've been at Duke for almost 18 years, and the Ambulatory Team is one of the most collaborative and successful groups I've ever been a part of," she said.