New endowed scholarship supports medicine-engineering initiatives, honors faculty mentors
By Jeni Baker
The inaugural Barr-Spach Medicine and Engineering Scholarship recipient Joshua D’Arcy.
Duke second-year medical student Joshua D’Arcy, M’19, has been chosen as the inaugural recipient of the new Barr-Spach Medicine and Engineering Scholarship.
The scholarship was created by a gift from Maynard Ramsey III, M’69, G’75, who established an endowment to honor his Duke mentors, biomedical engineering professor and associate professor of pediatrics Roger C. Barr, BS’64, PhD’68, and pediatric cardiologist Madison S. Spach, T’50, MD’54, HS’54-59.
The endowment also provides seed money for faculty research collaborations between the schools of medicine and engineering.
The Barr-Spach Scholarship—administered through Duke MEDx—will support D’Arcy as he completes a Master of Engineering degree through the Pratt School’s innovative new Doctor of Medicine-Master of Engineering (MD-MEng) dual-degree program.
Designed to create a pipeline of newly minted MDs with engineering expertise, the program seeks to foster innovation in health care and “prepare our doctors to think more deeply about developing novel solutions that help patients, solve problems and serve society,” says Brad Fox, program director and associate dean for master’s programs at the Pratt School.
“The MD-MEng degree is another example of Duke’s engineering and medical schools working together to better educate graduates, and we’re very thankful for Dr. Ramsey’s generosity in creating a scholarship that helps students take advantage of all it offers.”