David Williams, chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and director of Translational Research at Children's, and associate chair of Pediatric Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, has been selected by the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) as the recipient of the 2012 Outstanding Achievement Award.
The ASGCT's highest honor, the Outstanding Achievement Award recognizes one Society member per year, who has achieved pioneering research success, specific high impact accomplishments, or a lifetime of significant contributions to the field of gene and cell therapy. Williams was nominated by his peers for his exceptional body of work, ranging from his initial development of retrovirus vectors in gene transfer to hematopoietic stem cells, and the study of the interaction of hematopoietic stem cells with bone marrow, to his service to the Society, editing and elevating the Molecular Therapy journal to its current standing, and for organization of international cooperatives in the field. Williams is only the fifth researcher to receive this award.
Williams will be presented with the award at the ASGCT's 15th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA, on May 17, where he will also present a talk covering the highlights of his outstanding career in gene and cell therapy.
A leader in the field of advanced heart failure and cardiac transplantation, Mandeep Mehra, is now an HMS professor of medicine and executive director of the Advanced Heart Disease Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He assumed the post in January after almost seven years as head of at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, cardiology division and also as chief of medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Mehra will develop new models of care delivery by interdisciplinary teams coordinated through the Advanced Heart Disease Center. His specialization in the field has well prepared him for the challenges managing such collaborative care that breaks through the traditional constructs of advanced heart failure and transplantation. In addition, he hopes the Center’s collaboration with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute will evolve into one of the country's first cardio-oncology units, which will have depth in both translational science and clinical care.
Mehra is also editor in chief of the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation and was president of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) from 2008 to 2009.
C. Ronald Kahn, the Mary K. Iacocca Professor of Medicine at HMS and co-head of the Section on Integrative Physiology and Metabolism at Joslin Diabetes Center, was recently appointed the first ever chief academic officer at Joslin, the world’s largest diabetes clinical care and research organization.
Kahn, a former president and research director at Joslin, is charged with overseeing faculty recruitment, appointments and promotion. Each year Joslin trains some 150 MD and PhD fellows. Kahn expects his new position to help Joslin have a “stronger interface with the other Harvard Medical School affiliates,” and he plans to serve as a senior representative of Joslin to other medical schools and academic institutions.
From 1981 to 2001 Dr. Kahn was director of research at Joslin and, from 2001 to 2007, president and CEO. Educated at University of Louisville, he trained at Washington University and served as the Section Head of Cellular and Molecular Physiology of the Diabetes Branch of NIH. Kahn has received the highest scientific awards of the American Diabetes Association, U.S. Endocrine Society, British Diabetes and Endocrine Societies, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, International Diabetes Federation and American Federation for Clinical Research, as well as many other honors, including election to the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.
The Cambridge Health Alliance Board of Trustees recently announced the selection of Patrick Wardell as the new Chief Executive Officer for Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA). Wardell currently serves as the president and chief executive officer at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Michigan.
Wardell’s broad knowledge and understanding of safety net institutions and population health and, more important, how to position health systems like CHA amid national and local health care reform to improve, innovate, and modernize how care is provided to patients.
Before joining Hurley Medical Center, Mr. Wardell served in various leadership roles, including Regional Senior Vice President and Executive Director for St. Mary’s Hospital and St. Joseph’s Hospital in New York, NY, President and CEO of the St. Joseph’s Healthcare System in Paterson, New Jersey, and as Group Vice President, Ambulatory and Network Management Group for the Montefiore Medical Center/The University Hospital for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York.
Mr. Wardell received his Bachelors Degree in Psychology from Union College in New York and his Masters in Business Administration from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management. He has served on various boards including the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (NAPH), Michigan Hospital Association, and Whaley Children’s Center.
The Association of American Medical Colleges, representing medical schools and teaching hospitals and health systems, has awarded Massachusetts General Hospital its 2011 Spencer Foreman Award for Outstanding Community Service.
The award, one of the 134-year-old organization’s most prestigious honors, recognizes Mass General as a national leader for addressing local and global health, and for training future physicians to work in the community. The programs must extend beyond the traditional health delivery system. Mass General receives the award in the same year as the hospital celebrates its bicentennial.
For 200 years, MGH has provided high-quality care to citizens from all over the world and from just around the corner and partnering with communities to improve health. MGH rewrote its mission statement in 2007 to reflect its longstanding commitment to neighboring communities.
The Mass General Center for Community Health Improvement (CCHI) carries out this mission by partnering with communities to reduce substance abuse in Charlestown and Revere; to increase cancer screening in Boston and Chelsea; to improve access to care for vulnerable populations such as immigrants and refugees, seniors and homeless people; to tackle the obesity epidemic by making healthy food and physical activity easier choices to make: and to increase interest in science and health careers among Boston youth.
With the 2007 mission change, MGH President Peter Slavin asked each of the hospital’s clinical department chiefs to develop a community-oriented initiative of significant scope and impact. The result is a portfolio of 44 innovative programs that add to the 36 already underway. The institutional commitment to community outreach is felt at all levels; Slavin chairs an advisory committee of hospital and community leaders to build accountability, and the Board of Trustees is actively engaged in the CCHI’s work.
MGH won this award by presenting the following work:
Local Community – With the support of CCHI, the Charlestown Substance Abuse Coalition has helped decrease heroin overdose calls in the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown by more than 62 percent between 2003 and 2008, using narcotic-related illness data provided by Boston Emergency Medical Services.
Global Community – The MGH Center for Global Health is preparing the health care leaders and educators of tomorrow in close collaboration with in-country partners in South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Bangladesh; and efforts are under way to expand these models.
Educating Community Providers of the Future – Mass General has an array of programs to encourage medical students and residents to practice in the community. Nearly one third of all medical residents are trained in a community health center setting, and all residents have exposure to community settings.
