Meet Our Award Winners: Michael Alebich - Health & Medicine Policy Research Group

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Meet Our Award Winners: Michael Alebich

August 23, 2022

Emerging Leader Award
Michael Alebich

Michael Alebich, D.O., F.A.C.P., has dedicated his professional career to patients with substance use disorders by standardizing their alcohol withdrawal treatment protocols and expanding their access to inpatient medications for addiction treatment.

As a graduate of Benedictine University and the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, he was trained in internal medicine at Stroger Hospital of Cook County and Rush University Medical Center. “During medical school, I saw that a place like Stroger, that cares for those who cannot get care elsewhere, embodied the true spirit of medicine. It became clear that medicine, social justice, and public health are inextricably linked.”

Since 2014, Dr. Alebich has practiced hospital medicine at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County—where he also serves as an administrator in the hospital’s internal medicine residency training program, supervises rotating medical students, and works on several committees seeking to improve hospital quality and patient care. “Quentin Young’s status as a legend permeates the entire culture of the internal medicine department,” he shares. “For me to be associated with anything involving Dr. Young, let alone Health & Medicine, is an honor beyond my comprehension. This award compels me to strive for excellence in my endeavor to instill social justice in our future generations of doctors.”

“As my career progressed, I felt a calling in academics,” Dr. Alebich, who now holds academic appointments at Rush Medical College and Chicago Medical School, is an adjunct faculty member and frequent lecturer at the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, and has been honored with several awards recognizing his contributions to educating and mentoring students and residents, shares. “One cannot teach medicine by separating it from social considerations: it is my duty to imbue my learners with the socio-economic aspects that define the current practice of medicine in the United States.”

Outside of academic medicine, Dr. Alebich serves on the Governor’s Council of the Northern Illinois Chapter of the American College of Physicians (ACP) where he co-founded the ACP Northern Illinois podcast and assisted in organizing regional conferences. With the ACP, he strives to back his philosophical teaching approach with action, lending another outlet to educate practicing physicians and policy makers.

As a proponent of universal health care and the principle that health care is a basic human right, Dr. Alebich’s priorities are to advocate on both a micro and macro level for universal public health care in the United States. In the coming year, he looks forward to continuing his educational endeavors and work with the ACP and pursuing public policy goals that progress the cause of universal health care.