GENEVA, IL (October 22, 2015) The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) recently honored four distinguished persons for their outstanding contributions to the profession of hair restoration surgery. The award recipients were honored at the ISHRS 23rd Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago, Ill., USA, in September 2015.
The Manfred Lucas Award is a lifetime achievement award and the ISHRS’s highest honor. The award is not given every year; the recipients of this award are rare talents indeed. The Manfred Lucas Award honors the memory of an artistic hair restoration surgeon, a wonderful human being with a joyful presence. Manfred was an artist by training and could see aspects of balance and harmony in a hairline, which escaped many at the time.
The 2015 Manfred Lucas Award was bestowed to the late Dr. Shoji Okuda, (1886-1962) of Japan. Dr. Okuda was honored with the award in recognition of his decades of groundbreaking research in hair transplantation. A self-trained physician, Dr. Okuda published the surgical technique of punch hair grafting in the 1930s, including the first, and only, paper to date describing the histologic picture of the evolution of the transplanted grafts. He experimented with different donor areas—commonly known today as body hair transplantation—and how heterotransplantation, or transplants from other human scalps, did not produce hair growth. He is credited as the first to describe the use of a 1mm punch to harvest follicular units, making him the earliest pioneer of today’s follicular unit extraction (FUE) donor harvesting method.
The 2015 Golden Follicle Award, bestowed annually to an ISHRS member who has made outstanding and significant clinical contributions related to the field of hair restoration surgery, was presented to Bernard P. Nusbaum, MD, FISHRS, of Miami, Fla., USA. A respected teacher and leader, Dr. Nusbaum has authored 37 published articles including two that are highly regarded in the specialty—”Naturally Occurring Female Hairlines” and “Effects of Anti-Baldness Drugs on Follicular Apoptosis and Inflammasomes”. Dr. Nusbaum has made numerous contributions to the ISHRS over the years, authoring a column on scalp dermatology for the Society’s newsletter, The Hair Transplant Forum International, and later served as its editor. He is a past member of the ISHRS Board of Governors, past program chair of the annual scientific meeting, and served on numerous committees.
The 2015 Platinum Follicle Award, awarded for outstanding achievement in basic scientific or clinically-related research in hair pathophysiology or anatomy as it relates to hair restoration, was presented to Pierre Bouhanna, MD, FISHRS, of Paris, France. Dr. Bouhanna is the author of 10 textbooks on medical and surgical hair treatments published in five languages and has authored 140 medical articles and textbook chapters on hair surgery. He has a private practice in hair replacement surgery and is a consultant at the Hospital Saint-Louis (Paris). In addition, he is the course director of the Paris University Diploma for scalp pathology and surgery. Dr. Bouhanna has served as President of the French Society of Hair Replacement Surgery, an expert in dermatology for hair for the French Ministry of Health, and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Hair & Sciences. Dr. Bouhanna is a Fellow of the ISHRS and currently is a member of the Fellowship Training Committee. He also was involved in the development of the Phototrichogram and the multifactorial classification as an evaluation method for viability of long hair grafts, scalp diseases and the effect of drug molecules on hair growth.
The 2015 Distinguished Assistant Award honoring a surgical assistant with exemplary service and outstanding accomplishments in the field of hair restoration surgery was presented to Janna Shafer, of Bloomington, Minn., USA. Janna began her career in hair restoration as a technician in 1996, quickly working her way up to surgical manager. She has attended numerous major conferences. At many of these conferences, she was an integral part of the surgical demonstrations, assisting her physician and coordinating with foreign clinics to ensure all ran smoothly. Janna willingly shares her expertise with her peers and serves on the Surgical Assistants Committee of the ISHRS. Janna served as Surgical Assistant Chair of the Surgical Assistant Program at the ISHRS’s 2015 Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago.
About the ISHRS
The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) is a global non-profit medical association and a leading authority on hair loss treatment and restoration with more than 1,200 members throughout 70 countries worldwide. Above all, the ISHRS is dedicated to achieving excellence in patient outcomes by promoting the highest standards of medical practice, medical ethics, and research in the medical hair restoration industry. The ISHRS also provides continuing medical education to physicians specializing in hair transplant surgery and is committed to delivering the latest information on medical and surgical treatments to consumers suffering from hair loss, and most commonly from androgenetic alopecia—male pattern baldness and female pattern hair loss. It was founded in 1993 as the first international society to promote continuing quality improvement and education for professionals in the field of hair restoration surgery. For more information and to locate a physician, visit www.ishrs.org.
# # #