IVU founder receives international medicine award

The American Medical Association has awarded the Dr. Nathan Davis International Award in Medicine to Catherine deVries, MD, founder and president of International Volunteers in Urology (IVU), a Salt Lake City-based nonprofit organization dedicated to providing medical education and treatment in developing countries. The award honors a domestic physician for outstanding international service in the areas of medical practice, medical education, or medical research.

Dr. deVries, clinical associate professor of surgery at the University of Utah School of Medicine and chief of urology at Primary Children’s Hospital, Salt Lake City, began her overseas volunteer efforts in 1992 as the director of reconstructive urology for Interplast, Inc. She founded IVU in 1994 and the organization was incorporated as a nonprofit the following year.