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In This Issue:
Two BWH leaders were named as 2009 Health Care Champions by the Boston Business Journal, which annually selects “the best and the brightest in the Bay State’s world-class health industry.” This year, the newspaper recognized Miriam Mahler, CNM, MPH, program director of Midwifery, in the nursing category; and Bohdan Pomahac, MD, medical director of the Burn Center, in the innovator category.
Pomahac made international headlines in April when he led a 35-member surgery team in a 17-hour partial face-transplant that provided patient Jim Maki with a new nose, upper lip, hard palate and cheeks. It was the second face transplant procedure done in the U.S. and seventh in the world.
Pomahac worked for three years to develop the radically new, life-giving procedure to allow people with the most severe facial deformities to regain a sense of normalcy. He never lost sight of what this procedure meant to both the patient and the family of the donor, Joseph Helfgot. Pomahac collaborated with the New England Organ Bank to support Helfgot’s wife, Susan Whitman-Helfgot, and his family through every step. Pomahac and BWH made a life-long commitment to care for Maki both physically and mentally.
A steadfast advocate for all of the women in her care, Mahler has made it her life’s work to be the voice for those who otherwise would have no voice in the health care system. An exemplary nurse midwife in every aspect of care delivery, she works with her clinical colleagues at 10 community health centers in a constant effort to improve care for all patients.
She leads a team of 20 nurse midwives who care for patients at BWH and community health centers in providing prenatal care with compassion, dignity and respect while caring for more than 1,200 women in labor each year.
The recipient of this year’s BWH Thomson Compassionate Leadership Award, Mahler recently was involved in efforts that resulted in BWH purchasing and donating electronic fetal monitors to the community health centers. She also spearheaded an initiative to translate patient education materials into languages for all patients in the community health centers, including Haitian Creole, Vietnamese and Spanish.
Pomahac, Mahler and all the recipients will be featured in the Aug. 7 issue of the Boston Business Journal and honored at a breakfast in September.
Read the BBJ Champions of Health Care features on Mahler and Pomahac
And a DF/BWCC team of oncologists, allergists, nurses and IT staff received a team award in the Innovator category for developing a method that greatly reduces the risk of an allergic reaction to chemotherapy. Their method of desensitization relies on mathematical models that account for a drug's biochemistery as well as patient size and weight.