CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Anesthesiologist Alan Suyama smiled yesterday during a speech honoring him as the Queen's Medical Center's Outstanding Physician of 2005.

Anesthesiologist is Queen’s
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Anesthesiologist Alan Suyama, 54, has been named as the Queen's Medical Center's Outstanding Physician of 2005.

Suyama, 54, was in private practice for 20 years until the past year, when he worked with Queen's to develop an Anesthesia Preoperative Evaluation Clinic. He said the program is intended to screen patients and reduce risks of anesthetic and surgical complications.

Suyama, who specializes in cardio-thoracic and high-risk medical patients, is the clinic's perianesthesia medical director.

He said he was surprised to be nominated for the award, which is given to the medical staff member who best supports and exemplifies the Queen's mission.

Dan Jessop, Queen's chief operating officer, and Bob Gordon, board member, presented Suyama with a plaque at the Ke Kauka Po'okela 2005 Award ceremony yesterday at the medical center's Harkness Courtyard.

Suyama was born and raised in Honolulu and attended the University of California-Berkeley and University of California-San Francisco medical school. He did an internal medicine residency here and returned to UC-San Francisco for an anesthesiology residency.

Suyama practices and teaches aikido, keno and Zen meditation. His wife, Judy, is an optometrist.