Innovations and advocacy for a sensible approach to solving health-care issues has earned Dr. Karen Davis, the 2007 Julio Palmaz Award. The award honors individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to advances in the health-care and bioscience fields.

Dr. Palmaz, last year's recipient and namesake of the award, is the inventor of the first commercially successful intravascular stent that revolutionized cardiac care. The stent was issued a U.S. patent in 1988 and received FDA approval for use in cardiac arteries in 1994.

Davis, president of The Commonwealth Fund, created the Child Health Assessment Program during the Carter administration, the forerunner of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). She also designed and funded the Rand Health Insurance Experiment, which analyzed health-care access and outcomes that drive health benefit plans today.

BioMed SA, a nonprofit corporation created in 2005 to organize and promote the growing health-care and bioscience industries in San Antonio, will present Davis with her award at its December annual meeting.