Two SSOM Leaders Selected for Advancement to ACP Mastership
The American College of Physicians is a diverse community of internal medicine specialists and subspecialists united by a commitment to excellence. Masterships are awarded because of personal character, positions of honor, contributions towards furthering the purposes of the ACP, eminence in practice or in medical research or other attainments in science or in the art of medicine.
Dr. Eric A. Larson, professor and chair of the Department of Internal Medicine, graduated from the University of South Dakota School of Medicine in 1996. After pursuing a year of residency training in the USD Department of Pathology, he went on to complete his residency at the USD Department of Internal Medicine. He has held numerous leadership positions in medical education, serving as an administrator of the outpatient IM resident clinic for two decades and as the transitional year residency program director at USD from 2014-2022. In 2019, Dr. Larson advanced to the rank of professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at USD, and in 2022 became the department chair.
His research interests include quantifying the impact of gene-based drug dosing on clinical outcome for a variety of commonly used medications. Dr. Larson maintains a busy, half-time practice of general internal medicine patients where he routinely teaches students and residents in the clinic.
Dr. Tim Ridgway is the 15th dean of the USD SSOM and vice president of health affairs. He received his B.A. degree from Augustana University and M.D. degree from the SSOM. After a transitional residency at McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, he completed his internal medicine residency and gastroenterology fellowship at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota.
Dr. Ridgway is a Fellow of the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and the American College of Physicians, and has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the SDSMA Presidential Award, the USD Sanford School of Medicine Distinguished Alumnus Award, the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, the Augustana Alumni Achievement Award and the Teacher of the Year Award by the American College of Physicians. His service highlights include acting as president of the South Dakota State Medical Association and councilor of the Alpha Omega Alpha-South Dakota chapter. A faculty member of the SSOM since 1997, he was named the Dr. Charley F. and Elizabeth Gutch Chair in Medicine in 2015.
ACP MACPs have been awarded this extreme honor after being nominated by their peers and then vetted through the awards committee for selection due to the excellence and significance of their contributions to medicine as well as their involvement in ACP. A limited number of Masterships are awarded each year.
