Newswise — ROCHESTER, MN – September 23, 2021 – Janice M. Massey, MD, the first woman to be named professor of neurology with tenure at Duke University, is now the second woman in history to be selected as the recipient of AANEM’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Massey has won this award due to her contributions to the field of neuromuscular (NM) and electrodiagnostic (EDX) medicine through teaching, research, and publications.

Dr. Massey has been a member of AANEM since finishing her residency in 1983. She has contributed more than 30 years of service to the field of NM and EDX medicine, primarily on staff at Duke University.

“I have always enjoyed the hands-on patient care aspect of this field,” says Dr. Massey. “The anatomy and the necessity of logical thinking in particular really drove me to pick neurology as my specialty.”

Prior to becoming a neurologist, Dr. Massey began her career as a mathematics teacher. After her husband, E. Wayne Massey, MD, completed his own medical schooling, Dr. Massey started graduate school at the University of Texas. She studied neurobiology, which led to her interest in medicine. After completing her masters, she finished her Medical Doctorate degree at Georgetown University.

Dr. Massey currently serves as the executive vice chair in the Department of Neurology at Duke University Medical Center, where she also completed her residency and fellowship. She has been cited as an author or coauthor on approximately 200 abstracts, articles and invited reviews, is the founding director of the ALS/MDA Clinic at Duke University, and has presented her work to colleagues around the world at conferences in China, Japan, Poland, and more.

Dr. Massey has received many honors and accolades over the course of her career including numerous awards for her teaching, the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation Association’s Doctor of the Year in 2013, and AANEM’s Distinguished Physician Award in 2013.

When asked about challenges she has faced over her career, Dr. Massey notes the difficulty of establishing a career with a partner who worked alongside her in the same department at Duke. “Fortunately, we successfully navigated being married and both pursuing neurology careers at the same institution. Policy would not always allow for a married couple to be in the same department.” Dr. Massey also remembers splitting vacation time with her husband after adopting their first child. This was prior to Duke having a maternity/paternity leave policy. By the time they had adopted their second child, a policy was established.

“I have benefited from the great collaborations and teachings by educators and world experts at the annual meeting and through the printed syllabi,” she says in regard to her membership with AANEM. “I greatly appreciate the collegial spirit and high quality of commitment from my fellow colleagues, in both neurology and physical medicine.”

Dr. Massey will be presented with the award on Friday, October 15, 2021, at the AANEM Annual Meeting in Aurora, Colorado, along with the other winners of this year’s AANEM Achievement Awards. She states that she is profoundly honored to be winning this award and that she is very excited to be meeting in person once again.

For those just beginning their careers in medicine, Dr. Massey offers this advice, “Continue to learn, focus on doing your best, believe in yourself, and treat all fairly. Relationships are key to almost all we do. A solid reasonable salary is nice, but it is not as satisfying as good friendships and an inner sense of doing all one can to help patients.”

To learn more about awards bestowed by AANEM, visit aanem.org/Membership/Member-Portal/Achievement-Awards.

###

About AANEM The American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) is a nonprofit membership association dedicated to the advancement of neuromuscular (NM), musculoskeletal (MSK), and electrodiagnostic (EDX) medicine. For more information about AANEM, visit www.aanem.org or find us on Facebook and Twitter.