The Laureate Award is the highest distinction recognized by the College within a state chapter. It was given in recognition of excellence in medical care and medical education, as well as outstanding service to her community, the people of Wisconsin and the American College of Physicians.
Dr. Haase, a UW Clinical Professor of Medicine, teaches medical students and has practiced comprehensive Internal Medicine in Beaver Dam since 1988. She has received numerous teaching and leadership awards through the UW, the American Society of Internal Medicine and the American College of Physicians at the state and national levels. She is the immediate past Governor of the Wisconsin Chapter of the ACP and has served on National ACP boards and committees.
In conjunction with receiving this award, Dr. Haase presented the keynote “Middleton Memorial Lecture” at the State ACP meeting.
Her clinical case presentation centered on a patient she cared for at Beaver Dam Community Hospital. It was entitled, “A Rash, is a Rash, is a Rash.” It featured a young man who simultaneously had Stage I Lyme Disease and a drug rash related to the Doxycycline given for initial treatment. The condition was complicated by an acute Influenza A systemic infection, and further complicated by Staphlococcal aureus pneumonia with a strain producing toxins acting as superantigens.
The superantigens activated the immune system by bypassing the usual immune response sequence setting up a life-threatening Toxic Shock Syndrome causing shock, multi-organ failure and a body wide erythematous rash causing the skin to desquamate. The patient survived and was discharged to his home from BDCH.
Dr. Sharon Haase is a life-long resident of Dodge County and has lived on a farm near South Beaver Dam with her husband since 1974. She was the Valedictorian of Juneau High School in 1970, and graduated with a BS degree in Medical Technology from Michigan State University.
From 1974 to 1980, she worked for Consultant Physicians in Pathology at Beaver Dam Community Hospital in laboratory medicine. She also coordinated their School of Medical Technology, which provided a 12-month internship (4th year of college) in the lab, as well as serving as their autopsy assistant.
During that time, she also set up an Immunomicrobiology lab at her father-in-law’s Beaver Dam Veterinary Clinic doing animal microbiology work and producing autogenous herd vaccines. She entered medical school with the intention of being a Pathologist, but changed her career to fill the local medical needs of Beaver Dam Community Hospital and Dodge County.
After eight years of commuting to the UW in Madison, she graduated with honors from UW School of Medicine and Public Health in 1985, and then completed an Internal Medicine Residency at UW Hospitals and Clinics. Dr. Haase set up a solo practice in Internal Medicine in Beaver Dam in 1988 and has taught the UW 4th year preceptees since then. In 1989, she became the first woman head preceptor for the UW Medical School. In 1992, she joined the UW Health system as their first “community clinic,” at which time the UW hired Dr. Joel Miller as her first partner. Citing Dr. Miller as both a “God-send, and a life-saver,” they continue to serve the community.
Dr. Haase and her husband, Bob, have raised three children — Ryan, Christopher and Erin — on their farm. They have 3 grandchildren — Riley, Alexia and Addison. In 2006, Dr. Haase established a family-run “E-Club for Kidz” which serves as her hobby. Being the 10th of 14 children in the Cramer family, there are many grandchildren and great grandchildren in the club. It has always been a goal for her to become a published writer, something she hopes to still accomplish in her lifetime.