Frank G. Walter receives career achievement award from AACT

Frank G. Walter, MD, a tenured professor of emergency medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, received the 2024 Career Achievement Award from the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology, its highest honor.

“It means so much to receive this award,” said Walter, who is also a professor of pharmacy practice and science at the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy. “I feel very humbled and privileged that my friends and colleagues in the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology chose to honor me with the Career Achievement Award, selecting me to join a list of luminaries in clinical toxicology who have made such positive impacts for patients and communities over the decades.” 

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Walter is only the fourth person to have received both the AACT Career Achievement Award and the AACT Distinguished Service Award. He received the inaugural service award, the academy’s second-highest honor, in 2005.

Samuel M. Keim, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, said, “Dr. Walter is the consummate academic professional. He has advanced the discipline of clinical toxicology in multiple ways. His teaching in the classroom, at the bedside and in national presentations is truly the gold standard.” 

Walter said that although this award is given to an individual, it also recognizes and honors the collaboration of the U of A’s Emergency Medicine Research Center with the AACT in co-presenting Advanced Hazmat Life Support training for 25 years.  

“Advanced Hazmat Life Support has trained over 25,000 interdisciplinary health care professionals from 96 countries and territories in nine languages since Harvey W. Meislin, MD, and I cofounded AHLS a quarter-century ago and then established the partnership with AACT,” Walter said. Meislin is also a tenured professor of emergency medicine at the College of Medicine – Tucson.  

Walter joined the AACT in 1993 and has been actively involved throughout the years. He was a board member and trustee from 1996 to 2002, became a fellow in 2001, and has been the editor of AHLS and chair of the AHLS scientific advisory committee since 1999. He has chaired the AHLS administrative policy committee since 2019. 

Walter joined the U of A in 1993 and spends much of his time teaching at the bedside in emergency medicine clinical service and as a medical toxicology consultant at Banner – University Medical Center Tucson and Banner – University Medical Center South. He is a medical toxicologist at the Arizona Poison & Drug Information Center within the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy, where he also teaches and provides clinical service. 

The AACT was founded in 1968 by a group of physicians and scientists with the specific goal of advancing the diagnosis and treatment of poisonings. Its mission is to “champion the advancement of treatment, research, education and prevention of poisoning injuries caused by chemicals, drugs and toxins.”