Politis, Garg, Crans get Medical Society honors

YOUNGSTOWN — Drs. John Politis and Sudershan Garg are Mahoning County Medical Society’s Distinguished Physicians of the Year for 2006.

The awards were presented at the medical society’s annual meeting this week at Butler Institute of American Art, where the society also installed Dr. Charles A. Crans as its 134th president.

Dr. John Politis, who died in November 2006, was presented the award posthumously by Dr. Ritha Kartan, who practiced with Dr. Politis.

Dr. Garg graduated in 1962 from medical school in India and completed a three-year postgraduate doctorate there. He worked as an attending physician at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and the Hahnemann School of Medicine in Philadelphia, and in 1975, joined the staff of St. Elizabeth Health Center, heading its oncology/hematology program.

Dr. Garg has organized annual cancer symposiums since 1977, is an adjunct faculty member at Youngstown State University and clinical associate professor at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine and a member of the YSU Board of Trustees.

Dr. Politis, a native of Greece, graduated from Athens University Medical School. He served in the Greek Navy for two years, and served as a local doctor for villages in Greece. He came to America and did his internship at Northside Hospital and a fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He and his wife, Joanne, have two children, Thelmos and Paula.

Dr. Politis was a pulmonary/critical care specialist in the Mahoning Valley for 27 years. He was a professor of medicine at NEOUCOM and chairman of the department of internal medicine and director of the internal medicine residency program at Forum Health. He received 10 major teaching awards over the past 23 years, including the master teacher award from the American College of Physicians this year.

Dr. Crans received his bachelor of science degree and medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh, interned at McKeesport, (Pa.) Hospital and completed a four-year surgical residency at   Youngstown Hospital Association.

After serving in the Navy, Dr. Crans returned to Youngstown in 1969 and opened general surgery private practice, from which he retired in 2003. He served as chief of surgery of the Youngstown Hospital Association. He and his wife, Teresa, who have five grown children, live in Canfield.

Other 2007 officers installed are: Dr. Michael T. Engle, secretary/treasurer; Dr. Dean R. Ball, president-elect; Drs. Ball, Eugene Potesta and Chris A. Knight, delegates to the Ohio State Medical Association; Drs. Raymond Duffett, Constantine G. Economus and Nazim Jaffer, alternate delegates to the OSMA; Drs. Vivian I. Starr, Charles A. Crans and Steven Scharf, Society council members; and Drs. David Dunch and Norton German, foundation trustees.

Also honored at the annual meeting were recipients of the OSMA 50 Years in Medicine Awards. They are Drs. J. James Anderson, Frederick W. Dunlea, Michael C. Galose, Robert D. Gillette, Douglas M. Goldsmith, Joseph I. Gonzales, Abdul Hafiz and Costas A. Sarantopoulos.