Newswise — Baltimore, Md. - Sally M. Pinkstaff, M.D., Ph.D., the director of the Diabetes Resource Center at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and a member of the Division of Endocrinology in the Department of Medicine at Sinai, has been honored with a Compassionate Doctor of 2012 Award.

More than 200,000 patients from around the United States vote each month by providing online feedback about their personal encounters with their doctors and dentists to the Patients’ Choice organization, which was established to highlight the best doctors in America. The group then combines all of the ratings and opinions to come up with its yearly list.

Pinkstaff, also a recipient of this award last year, is an endocrinologist who specializes in geriatric medicine. She has been practicing medicine for more than 33 years, and earned her medical degree in internal medicine and her doctorate in medical physiology.

This published doctor is passionate about giving people the tools and techniques necessary to follow a prescribed diabetes treatment regimen safely and comfortably. She has been the director of Sinai’s Diabetes Resource Center since its creation in 2008.

The following are just some of the categories that Pinkstaff and her staff were graded on: physician’s rapport with patients, the one-on-one time spent with patients, adequate scheduled follow-up appointments and the demeanor of office employees.

According to Patients’ Choice, only 5 percent of the country’s 830,000 physicians receive glowing evaluations from the patients who make their voices heard.

Sinai Hospital is part of LifeBridge Health, one of the largest, most comprehensive providers of health services in northwest Baltimore. LifeBridge Health also includes Northwest Hospital, Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital, Courtland Gardens Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, and related subsidiaries and affiliates. For more information, visit www.lifebridgehealth.org.