Names and Faces

Five BWHers Named Champions in Health Care

Five BWHers are among this year’s “Champions in Health Care,” awarded annually by The Boston Business Journal to honor the best and brightest professionals in the Bay State’s world-class health care industry.

“This recognition speaks volumes about the passion and commitment of our staff not only to patients, but also to our focus on the quality of service for all the communities we serve,” said BWH President Betsy Nabel, MD. “It’s a tremendous honor for five of our people to receive this recognition in a city renowned for its leadership and excellence in health care.”

The Boston Business Journal bestows awards in seven categories. This year, BWH is represented in five.

Howard Hiatt, MD, associate chief and co-founder of the Division of Global Health Equity, received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his indelible contributions to health care. During a career that spans more than half a century, Hiatt has made transformative contributions stretching across the entire spectrum of health care, from public health and molecular biology to patient safety and the education of generations of physicians in training. BWH’s Division of Global Health Equity, which Hiatt helped launch, is a pioneer among programs for training young clinicians in the area of health inequities around the world.

Michael Gustafson, MD, MBA, senior vice president of Clinical Excellence, was an honoree in the administrator category. Gustafson has spearheaded many critical and innovative initiatives that have created a culture of quality, excellence, safety and transparency at BWH. For the last decade, Gustafson has championed the BWF Balanced Scorecard, which translates the organization’s mission, strategy and goals into a comprehensive set of performance measures. Most recently, Gustafson is leading strategies within BW/F and Partners for more widespread adoption of process improvement and for building manager and front-line staff improvement and change management skills.

An Innovator Award went to William Churchill, MS, RPh, executive director of Pharmacy Services. Churchill has established the pharmacy at BWH as a national leader in the use of technology to improve medication safety, efficiency and research, while driving down medication costs at a time when the debate rages over the cost of health care. Churchill recently added a trio of medication preparation robots to the pharmacy team, an innovation that builds on the pharmacy’s track record for dramatically increasing safety and efficiency.

In the nursing category, Patrice Nicholas, DNSc, MPH, RN, ANP, FAAN, director of Global Health and Academic Partnerships, in the Center for Nursing Excellence, was recognized for her research and teaching about quality of life issues in chronic illness, particularly HIV/AIDS and international/cross-cultural work. She has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed research and clinical manuscripts, texts, chapters and monographs related to nursing, health care and global health. Nicholas is also a professor in the School of Nursing at the MGH Institute of Health Professions.

In the physician category, Michael VanRooyen, MD, MPH, director of both the Division of International Health and Humanitarian Programs and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, was honored for his contribution to the practice of medicine. VanRooyen’s unique ability to apply scientific methodology to improve relief efforts in massive humanitarian crises has established him as one of the world’s authorities on humanitarian health issues, war, disaster and displacement. He has worked in more than 30 conflict zones and disaster settings internationally with numerous relief agencies and has been has been a special advisor for the World Health Organization, the Institute of Medicine and several United Nations agencies.

In addition to the BWH recipients, John Glaser, who served as vice president and chief information officer of Partners Health Care, was honored in the administrator category for his commitment to advance the use of technology to improve patient care and clinical outcomes. Prior to his position at Partners, he was chief information officer at BWH during the introduction of the computerized provider order entry system (CPOE). Glaser left his post at Partners in August to become chief executive officer of Siemens Health Services.

Agar Receives NIH New Innovator Award

Nathalie Agar, PhD, director of the Surgical Molecular Imaging Laboratory at BWH, is a 2010 recipient of a New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award is intended to support research into highly creative scientific approaches that may be at too early a stage to qualify for more traditional NIH grants. The award will support Agar’s cross-disciplinary, multi-institutional research project. In neurosurgery for brain cancers, the main objective is to maximize removal of the tumor while preserving healthy tissue. Agar’s project aims to develop and implement a real-time molecular analysis of the tissue involved using three-dimensional mass spectrometry in combination with radiology imaging as a guide for neurosurgery.

Means Recognized for Community Work

Roseanna Means, MD, a physician in the Fish Center for Women’s Health, is one of ten recipients of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leaders Award for 2010. Each year, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation honors exceptional men and women who have overcome significant obstacles to tackle some of the most challenging health and health care problems facing their communities. Means is recognized for founding Women of Means, a network of volunteer physicians who provide free medical care to about 2,500 homeless women in the Boston area each year.

Rehm Among Boston Business Journal 40 Under 40

Heidi Rehm, PhD, of the BWH Pathology Department, has been named to The Boston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 honorees list for 2010. Each year, this program recognizes 40 emerging business leaders under the age of 40 in the Greater Boston area. Honorees are selected by an editorial committee after the publication solicits nominations from the business community. In addition to her role as a research scientist at BWH, Rehm is also director of the Laboratory for Molecular Medicine at the Partners Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine.

Braunwald awarded Lifetime Achievement Awards and Honorary Degree

Eugene Braunwald, MD, who served as chair of Medicine and physician-in-chief between 1972 and 1996, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American College of Cardiology. Braunwald, who found the TIMI Study Group in 1985, was recognized for pioneering the concept of protection of the ischemic myocardium and the “open artery” concept, which have transformed the treatment of myocardial infarction. Braunwald was also the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Heart Failure Society of North America for his sustained and continuing research on heart failure beginning in 1962, when he and colleagues described the first neurohormonal abnormality in heart failure. Earlier this year, he received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Rochester. He was cited for his contributions as an educator and editor of “Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine” and his own textbook, “Heart Disease;” both books are the leading texts in these fields.

Hasan Named CCE Medical Director

Omar Hasan, MBBS, MPH, was named medical director for Continuum of Care Strategies within the BW/F Center for Clinical Excellence. Hasan is working with BW/F and BWPO leadership on the overall portfolio of continuum of care initiatives, with an emphasis on reducing re-admissions and improving transitions and handoffs and length of stay. Hasan recently completed a one-year quality improvement fellowship at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and has served in clinical leadership roles at community hospitals in Connecticut, both in primary care practice and for inpatient hospitalist settings. He received his medical education and training at King Edward Medical College in Pakistan, completed his internal medicine residency training at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and fellowship in general internal medicine at Harvard Medical School and BWH. He also earned a master’s degree in healthcare management and policy from Harvard School of Public Health. Hasan is continuing his clinical duties half-time in the Department of Medicine, where he is an instructor and member of the BWH Hospitalist Service.

Bates Named Among Most Powerful People in Health Care

David W. Bates, MD, chief of General Internal Medicine and medical director of Clinical and Quality Analysis at Partners, has made Modern Healthcare’s Top 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare list for 2010. This annual list recognizes those considered among the most influential people throughout the healthcare industry. Bates was nominated and voted for by the readers of Modern Healthcare.

Riella Receives AST Fellowship

Leonardo V. Riella, MD, a fellow in the BWH Renal Division, received the Basic Science Fellowship Grant from the American Society of Transplantation. The fellowship grant is awarded for new young investigators who have the potential to contribute to the understanding of transplant science and immunobiology. Riella’s fellowship is a two-year grant of $40,000, which will support his study of the role of the Notch pathway in transplantation. Riella is working with mentor Anil Chandraker, MD, clinical director of Transplantation at BWH and

co-director of the Transplantation Research Center.

Saldaña named HMS Assistant Dean for Student Affairs

Fidencio Saldaña, MD, MPH, was appointed faculty assistant dean for Student Affairs in the Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs (ORMA) at Harvard Medical School, effective Sept. 1. Saldaña, an attending physician in Medicine and Cardiology, has focused his professional efforts on training, advising and mentoring students at HMS, BWH and Faulkner Hospital. He also is the BWH site co-director in Patient Doctor-II and course co-director of Cardiovascular Pathophysiology in Human Systems. He is a tireless and passionate advocate for care of the underserved and for reducing disparities in health care. He received his medical degree from HMS, where, as a student, he was one of the co-founders of Medical Students de Las Americas. Following his residency and chief residency in internal medicine, he completed his cardiology fellowship and advanced fellowship in cardiovascular imaging at BWH. Saldaña joined the faculty as a member of the BWH Division of Cardiology. He also earned his master’s in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Larsen Honored with Medical Sciences Award

P. Reed Larsen, MD, chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension, was selected as the recipient of the Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences. This award, given bi-annually, was established to reward excellence in biomedical research. Larsen was recognized for his many contributions to the field of thyroid physiology, pathophysiology and disease. He will receive the award in December at the 2010 Emirates Endocrine Conference in Dubai.