Health Care Heroes

Philip Low, founder of On Target Laboratories and Purdue University’s presidential scholar for drug discovery, invented Cytalux.

Dr. Lawrence Einhorn is credited for revolutionizing testicular cancer treatment in the 1970s, leading to a 95% cure rate today.

Dr. John Christenson battled cancer while leading Riley’s work to prevent the spread of COVID.

Dr. John Woodall began practicing family medicine in Anderson, his hometown, after leaving the Air Force in 1972.

Monica Heltz is the public health director for the city of Fishers, which launched its own public health department during the pandemic.

Greg Carter works under the umbrella of harm reduction; much of his research has focused on identifying barriers to HIV screening and creating community-based HIV prevention interventions.

Scott Janke treats veterans who have entered the Indianapolis Veterans Treatment Court, which provides help to veterans involved in the criminal justice system who are dealing with addiction, mental illnesses and injuries.

Sally Freeman greets surgical services patients, takes them to the pre-op area, directs families to post-op after their loved one is out of surgery, and helps keep the waiting rooms neat and tidy.

Anne Nobles was an early champion for integrating individual fundraising entities at 16 IU Health hospitals into the singular IU Health Foundation, which launched in 2018.

Cynthia Chowning and Jonita Shaw have more than 400 hours of volunteer time with Eskenazi Health.

In August, a team of Riley physicians, advanced practice providers and nurses began making plans to provide care to hundreds of minor refugees after their families evacuated Afghanistan to escape the Taliban’s takeover of the country. But their care went beyond treating illnesses.

Dr. Kristina Box was thrust into the spotlight during the COVID-19 pandemic as the state’s health commissioner.

The dashboards have been used throughout the pandemic to provide important data not only to health and government leaders but also to everyday Hoosiers.

At the request of Gov. Eric Holcomb, a team of researchers and practitioners at the school designed and executed several waves of sample COVID testing of Indiana’s population.

From March to December last year, IEMS crews responded to nearly 20,000 calls about potential COVID-19 cases and were ultimately in contact and caring for more than 2,300 positive patients in Marion County.

The team was charged with training nurses to be deployed anywhere they were needed during the pandemic, including areas where COVID surges and nursing shortages were expected.

Lilly’s BLAZE-1 study examined antibody therapy engineered from one of the first individuals in the United States to recover from COVID and was specifically designed to attack the virus that causes it, SARS-CoV-2.

Dave Skeels, a 59-year-old retired engineering consultant from Indianapolis, spent six weeks this year volunteering in a vaccine clinic in Evansville, more than 200 miles from home.