Dudley Named BWPO Chief Medical Officer

Jessica C. Dudley, MD, in January began as the chief medical officer of the Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization, marking a return to BWH from Partners, where she was an associate medical director at PCHI and team leader for one of the Partners High Performance Medicine teams.

“Jessica brings tremendous experience in contracting and managed care and systems improvement, along with excellent leadership and communication skills. She is results-oriented and wonderfully collaborative,” said BWPO President Allen L. Smith, MD, MS.

Dudley, who graduated from HMS and completed her internal medicine and primary care residency at BWH, is the first woman to achieve chief medical officer status at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. As the BWPO’s chief medical officer, Dudley will lead many key initiatives, including contracting, achieving Pay for Performance (P4P) quality and efficiency targets and advancing physician work life and leadership development efforts.

“I am thrilled to return to the Brigham in a leadership position for the BWPO,” Dudley said. “Both BWH and the BWPO have a commitment to the delivery of safe, quality and efficient care, and I look forward to supporting the physicians in achieving these goals.”

As CMO, Dudley will lead the BWPO’s contracting and medical management efforts, including PO negotiation efforts with payors. She will focus on supporting the PO in achieving its quality and efficiency targets as detailed in payor contracts to ensure PO maximizes its return on withhold dollars. PO contracts include P4P targets in the areas of pharmacy utilization, high-cost radiology utilization, diabetes management, and use of LMR for e-prescribing and use of problem lists.

Also, she will represent the BWPO and its interests at PCHI (Partners Community Health, Inc.) and will collaborate closely with important network partners, such as Atrius Health/Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates.

In addition, Dudley will serve as co-chair of the BWH Physicians’ Council, and work closely with council subgroups that focus on physician work life issues, leadership development and volunteerism efforts.

Dudley has a bachelor of arts in biology from Yale University, and she graduated from HMS in 1994. After completing her medical training at BWH, she remained a primary care physician through 2007 while serving as an instructor in Medicine at HMS for interns and residents in the outpatient ambulatory clinic.

She comes to the BWPO from Partners, where she was an associate medical director at PCHI and leader of the PHS High Performance Medicine Trend Management Team, focusing on system-wide efforts to improve efficiency.