Partners HealthCare
Center of Expertise in Health Policy and Management
Faculty Bios
COE Co-Chairs
Arnold Epstein, MD
John H. Foster Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at
Harvard University School of Public Health
Dr. Epstein is the John H. Foster Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy and
Management at Harvard University School of Public Health. He is a practicing internist in the
Department of Medicine (Division of General Medicine) at the Brigham and Women's Hospital.
His research interests focus on quality of care and access to care for disadvantaged populations.
He was vice chair of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Developing a National Report on
Health Care Quality. He also served as chairman of the board of AcademyHealth. He was Cochair of the Performance Measurement Coordinating Council of the Joint Commission on
Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the National Committee on Quality Assurance, and
the American Medical Association. He worked in the White House for two years during the first
term of the Clinton administration, and he currently serves on the Board of Governors of the
Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) established by the Affordable Care Act.
He has served on several editorial boards including the Journal of Health Services Research, the
American Journal of Medicine, and the Annals of Internal Medicine and he has been elected to
the Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He is
Associate Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and a member of the Institute of
Medicine. He received a BA from the University of Rochester, a master’s degree in political
science from Harvard University, a BMS from Dartmouth Medical School and a MD from Duke
University.
Timothy G. Ferris, MD, MPH
Medical Director, Mass General Physicians Organization and PHS Vice President for
Population Health Management
Dr. Ferris is a practicing general internist and pediatrician and the medical director of the Mass
General Physicians Organization. He is formally the Vice Chair for Quality for Partners
Pediatrics and Mass General Hospital for Children. He is also a Senior Scientist in the
Partners/MGH Institute for Health Policy and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard
Medical School. His research has focused on the measurement and improvement of health care
quality for adults and children, particularly focused on the roles of financing and health
information technology. In addition to quality improvement interventions he has published
studies on the effects of the organization and financing of care on the costs and quality of care,
risk adjustment of quality measures, and disparities in health care. He has over 50 publications
including those in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Pediatrics, and
Health Affairs. Dr. Ferris has been leading efforts at Partners Healthcare to improve the care of
patients with multiple chronic conditions with specific responsibility for design, oversight and
evaluation of programs to improve quality and efficiency of care for high‐risk patients such as
those with heart failure.
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Partners HealthCare
Center of Expertise in Health Policy and Management
Faculty Bios
Health Policy Center of Expertise Faculty
Clay Ackerly, MD, MSc
PHS Associate Medical Director for Population Health and Continuing Care and MGH Assistant
Chief Medical Officer for Non-Acute Services
Dr. D. Clay Ackerly II, MD, MSc, is a primary care physician with a special interest in the needs
of older adults. In addition to his clinical duties, he serves as Associate Medical Director for
Population Health and Continuing Care at Partners Healthcare, and as Assistant Chief Medical
Officer for Non-Acute Services at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In these roles, he is
responsible for multiple efforts to improve the quality and efficiency of post-acute care.
Dr. Ackerly recently served as an Innovation Advisor to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS) and was named a Practice Change Leader by the John A. Hartford Foundation
and the Atlantic Philanthropies. Prior to pursuing his medical training, Dr. Ackerly served in the
private sector and the Federal Government, including at CMS and the White House, where he
advanced multiple healthcare quality improvement efforts. He was Founder and Editor-in-Chief
of the Harvard Health Policy Review, and he has since published articles in journals such as the
Lancet, Health Affairs and Academic Medicine.
Born and raised in Washington, DC, Dr. Ackerly graduated from Harvard College with a degree
in Health Policy (magna cum laude); earned his medical degree as a Nanaline Duke Scholar at the
Duke University School of Medicine; and completed his Internal Medicine training at the
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). In addition, he holds a Masters degree in International
Health Policy from the London School of Economics.
Dale S. Adler, MD
Executive Vice Chair, Department of Medicine, Brigham & Women's Hospital
Dr. Adler is responsible for department and hospital network development and strategy, for
physician management of Brigham Medical specialties, for BWH DOM relationship with other
health care centers. His main responsibilities include identifying new outreach opportunities for
specialists and primary care physicians in coordination with BWH and BWPO network strategy.
He received his BA from Harvard University, his MD from Cornell University and trained at
BWH in Internal Medicine and Cardiology. In 2006 he joined BWH from Case Western Reserve
University, where he was chief of Cardiology for eight years, professor of Medicine, director of
the Cardiovascular Service Line, and vice chair for Clinical Affairs in the Department of
Medicine. In addition, during his time at Case Western Reserve University, he helped integrate 10
satellite hospitals to increase the scope of services.
Stanley W. Ashley, MD
Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs, Brigham and Women’s
Hospital
Stanley W. Ashley, MD is Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs
at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Frank Sawyer Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical
School. A graduate of Oberlin College and Cornell University Medical College, he completed a
residency in general surgery and joined the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis. He
subsequently spent 7 years at UCLA before assuming his current position at Brigham and
Women’s Hospital/ Harvard Medical School in 1997. He previously served as Vice Chairman of
the Department of Surgery and Program Director of the General Surgery Residency. Dr. Ashley
is a gastrointestinal surgeon whose primary interests are diseases of the pancreas and
inflammatory bowel disease. His research, which has been funded by both the VA the NIH, has
examined the pathophysiology of the small bowel and pancreas. The author of more than 250
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Partners HealthCare
Center of Expertise in Health Policy and Management
Faculty Bios
publications, he serves on numerous editorial boards, including the Journal of Gastrointestinal
Surgery, the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, Current Problems in Surgery, and
ACS Surgery. He is currently Chair of the American Board of Surgery and Secretary-Elect of the
Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract.
Joseph R. Betancourt, MD, MPH
Director, The Disparities Solutions Center; Senior Scientist, The Institute for Health Policy;
Director of Multicultural Education, Mass General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Harvard Medical School
Dr. Betancourt is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and directs the
Disparities Solutions Center at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), which works with
healthcare organizations to improve quality of care, address racial and ethnic disparities, and
achieve equity. He is also Director of Multicultural Education at MGH, and an expert in crosscultural care and communication. He practices Internal Medicine at the MGH Internal Medicine
Associates. Dr. Betancourt is a co-founder of Quality Interactions, Inc., a company that has
created and deployed a portfolio of e-learning programs in the area of cross-cultural care and
communication to over 125,000 health care professionals across the country.
Dr. Betancourt has served on several Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committees, including those
that produced “Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health Care”,
“Guidance for a National Health Care Disparities Report”, and “In the Nation’s Compelling
Interest: Ensuring Diversity in the Health Care Workforce.” and served on the IOM Roundtable
on Health Literacy. He was a member of the Massachusetts State Committee on Racial/Ethnic
Disparities and served on the Boston Public Health Commission’s Committee on Racial/Ethnic
Disparities. Dr. Betancourt co-chairs the MGH Committee on Racial and Ethnic Disparities and
the Harvard Medical School Cross-Cultural Care Committee, and sits on the Boston Board of
Health as well as Health Equity Committee, and the Massachusetts Disparities Council. Dr.
Betancourt is on the Boards of Trinity Health, a large, national Catholic healthcare system based
in Michigan, as well as Neighborhood Health Plan, a Medicaid Managed Care Plan based in
Boston.
O’Neil Britton, MD
Chief Health Information Officer, Partners HealthCare, and Executive Director, Partners eCare
O’Neil Britton provides clinical and academic leadership in the development and implementation
of Partners eCare. He works closely with clinical, academic, IT, and administrative leaders to
ensure Partners eCare serves all of the Partners’ missions. Previously, Britton served as Chief
Medical Officer of Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital (BWFH), where he was responsible
for shared oversight of the quality and safety of patient care and access, physician
professionalism and peer support, network integration and development, and the creation and
implementation of key clinical strategic initiatives. In addition to his role as CMO, he was also
responsible for the administrative oversight of the BWFH Emergency Department that provides
care to more than 25,000 patients per year, and the Information Systems Department that is
responsible for the management and improvement of the MEDITECH Electronic Health Record.
Britton remains clinically active at both BWFH and BWH as a hospitalist. He is recognized both
locally and nationally as a thought leader dedicated to the professional development of students,
trainees, and junior faculty and the importance of mentoring on career advancement opportunities
throughout the medical profession.
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Partners HealthCare
Center of Expertise in Health Policy and Management
Faculty Bios
Craig Bunnell, MD, MBA, MPH
Associate Chief Medical Officer, Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Dr. Bunnell is the Associate Chief Medical Officer of the Dana‐Farber Cancer Institute. He
received his MD from Harvard Medical School and his MPH from Harvard School of Public
Health in 1990. He received his MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008.
He completed his residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in hematology and oncology at
the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he also served as chief medical resident. He joined
the DFCI faculty in 1996, and is a member of the Breast Oncology Center in the Gillette
Women’s Cancers Program.
Jonathan Coblyn, MD
Director of Clinical Rheumatology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Dr. Jonathan Coblyn is Director of Clinical Rheumatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
and Director of the Center for Arthritis and Joint Diseases. He is the former director of primary
care at BWH and has managed network Integration of inpatient activities to improve efficiencies.
Dennis D. Colling
Vice President, Human Resources, Partners HealthCare
Dennis Colling has been Vice President for Human Resources of Partners Healthcare since 1994.
He is responsible for oversight of all Human Resources activities across the Partners network.
Human Resources is structured such that the HR leader at each entity enjoys a dual reporting
relationship to both entity leadership and to him. This framework ensures that Human Resources
is positioned to align services to the strategic mission of both Partners and the entity and is able to
balances system needs with those of the academic, community, and specialty hospitals and the
physician networks.
Dennis previously held similar positions at the University of Pennsylvania Health System
(UPHS), where he was awarded the “Healthcare Heroes Award” by the Philadelphia Business
Journal as Benefits Manager for the Year; and at the Catherine McAuley Health System, Ann
Arbor, Michigan, a large regional health system that included an owned health maintenance
organization. During his tenure there, the system was listed as one of Working Mothers' “75 Best
Companies for Working Mothers”. Dennis also worked for the Veterans Administration in
Detroit, and served in the U.S. Navy from 1970 - 1974. Dennis received an A.B. in political
science and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.
Jessica C. Dudley, MD
Chief Medical Officer, Brigham and Women’s Physician’s Organization
As Chief Medical Officer for the Brigham and Women’s Physician’s Organization, Dr. Dudley is
responsible for overseeing the contracting efforts on behalf of the BWPO and leading the medical
management team in developing and implementing programs designed to meet pay for
performance targets related to efficiency and quality. Additional responsibilities include
addressing physician work‐life issues and collaboration and development of physician leadership
and volunteerism programs. Previously, as Associate Medical Director for Partners Community
HealthCare, Inc. (PCHI), and Team Leader for the High Performance Medicine Trend
Management Team, Dr. Dudley was responsible for developing and coordinating system wide
approaches to address areas of increasing resource utilization. Previously, Dr. Dudley was
Medical Director for Partners Human Resources. Prior to this position, Dr. Dudley had worked as
Associate Medical Director and Assistant Medical Director, for PCHI. Dr. Dudley received her
medical degree from Harvard Medical School. She completed her internship and residency in
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Partners HealthCare
Center of Expertise in Health Policy and Management
Faculty Bios
Primary Care Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA and is Board
Certified in Internal Medicine.
Sunil Eappen, MD
Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology and Chief Medical Director of the Operating
Room, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
Dr. Eappen is Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology and the Chief Medical Officer at
the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, Massachusetts. The Mass. Eye and Ear has
21 operating rooms and performs approximately 20, 000 operative procedures yearly including
nearly 5000 pediatric procedures. Prior to this position, He worked at the Brigham and Women’s
Hospital as an obstetrical anesthesiologist and was the Vice Chairman for Clinical Affairs and the
Clinical Director. Dr. Eappen started his career spending three years in a basic science laboratory
investigating the contribution of the spinal cord to mechanisms of action of general anesthetics
and the interaction of various anesthetic agents. Recent research interests involve quality and
operational efficiency in the utilization of operating room resources as well as the financial
implications of surgical complications.
Matthew E. Fishman
Vice President, Community Health, Partners HealthCare
Matt Fishman is Vice President for Community Health at Partners HealthCare. Matt leads
Partners' efforts to collaborate with community health centers and other community-focused
organizations to make measurable progress on public health and economic opportunity. In
addition, Matt focuses on improving systems of care for low income patients and their caregivers,
and providing affordable coverage through implementation of the landmark Massachusetts health
care reform law, which he worked with many other people to help design.
Previously, Matt worked at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) as the Administrator for the
hospital's Emergency Department and as the first Director of BWH’s Center for Perinatal and
Family Health (now the Center for Community Health and Health Equity).
Matt began his career in state government. He served as Budget Director for the Massachusetts
Department of Public Welfare and then as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services
during the second and third terms of Governor Michael Dukakis. He helped to develop and obtain
funding for what became a nationally recognized job training, employment, and child care
program for women on public assistance. Matt also played a key role in Massachusetts’s first
effort to design and finance a statewide universal health insurance coverage system in 1987-88.
And he led efforts to design and implement new models of substance abuse and HIV/AIDS
treatment, and to convert underutilized hospitals to other health care uses.
Matt serves on the boards of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Massachusetts, the
Institute for Community Health, and the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack
Valley.
Atul Gawande, MD, MPH
Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute;
Director, Ariadne Labs
Atul Gawande is a surgeon, writer, and public health researcher. He practices general and
endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He is Professor in the
Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health and
Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He is also Director of Ariadne Labs, a joint
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Partners HealthCare
Center of Expertise in Health Policy and Management
Faculty Bios
center for health system innovation at BWH and HSPH developing scalable innovations to
transform safety and performance in medicine.
In addition, he has been a staff writer for the New Yorker magazine since 1998. He has written
three New York Times bestselling books: COMPLICATIONS, which was a finalist for the
National Book Award in 2002; BETTER, which was selected as one of the ten best books of 2007
by Amazon.com; and THE CHECKLIST MANIFESTO. He is founder and chairman of Lifebox,
an international not-for-profit implementing systems and technologies to reduce surgical deaths
globally. He has won two National Magazine Awards, AcademyHealth’s Impact Award for
highest research impact on health care, a MacArthur Award, and selection by Foreign Policy
Magazine and TIME magazine as one of the world’s top 100 influential thinkers.
Gary Gottlieb, MD, MBA
President and Chief Executive Officer, Partners HealthCare
Gary L. Gottlieb, MD, MBA is President and CEO of Partners HealthCare, serving as the fourth
Partners CEO since the organization was founded in 1994. Dr. Gottlieb held a number of senior
leadership positions since he joined the Partners organization in 1998, as its first Chairman of
Partners Psychiatry and Mental Health and Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
He has been President of Brigham and Women’s Hospital since 2002. Prior to this, he served as
President of North Shore Medical Center from 2000 through 2002.
In addition to his numerous roles nationally in psychiatry and health care, Dr. Gottlieb is
committed to expanding access to care for all members of our community as evidenced by his
past role as co‐chair of the Mayor’s Task Force to Eliminate Health Disparities; he serves as
chairman of the Private Industry Council, the Mayor’s workforce development board in guiding
and building a health care labor force for the future, as well as expanding educational
opportunities for young people in Boston.
Mitchel Harris, MD
Chief of Trauma in Orthopedics, and Chair of the Physicians’ Council Brigham and Women’s
Hospital
Dr. Mitchel Harris, MD is chief of Trauma in Orthopedics, and chair of the Physicians’ Council
leadership subcommittee. Dr. Harris serves as Co‐Director of the BWH/PO Physician Leadership
Academy, a collaborative effort between BWH and Harvard Business School. The Center for
Faculty Development and Diversity (CFDD) and the Physicians’ Council created this intensive
academic program for mid-career faculty already in, or aspiring to, leadership positions at BWH.
The curriculum, which includes Brigham-based case studies taught in a business school model,
was developed jointly by HBS faculty and BWH faculty and leadership. The 10-month program
offers in-depth course work on hospital leadership taught from financial, operations, human
resources and strategic perspectives.
James L. Heffernan, MBA
CFO and Treasurer, Massachusetts General Physicians Organization
James L. Heffernan, FHFMA, MBA, is CFO and treasurer of the Massachusetts General
Physicians Organization (MGPO). He is responsible for all the finance functions for MGPO,
including billing, payment analysis, budgeting, and financial reporting. He also plays a significant
role in managed care contracting. The MGPO has 975 physicians and more than 2,000
employees, and contracts with another 600 physicians for managed care. Massachusetts General
Hospital, the corporate member and general hospital of the MGPO, is one of the principal
teaching hospitals of Harvard Medical School.
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Partners HealthCare
Center of Expertise in Health Policy and Management
Faculty Bios
Brent Henry, JD
Vice President and General Counsel, Partners HealthCare
Brent Henry is Vice President and General Counsel of Partners HealthCare. He oversees the legal
department and corporate compliance. Previously in his career, Mr. Henry was Vice President
and General Counsel of MedStar Health, a hospital system serving the Baltimore/Washington
corridor. He has also served as the Deputy Administrator of the New York City Human
Resources Administration (where he directed the NYC Medicaid program), and as the Director of
Business and Governmental Affairs for Greater Southeast Health Care System in Washington,
DC. Mr. Henry began his career as an attorney with the law firm of Jones, Day. He has also
taught health care law at the Howard University and University of Maryland graduate programs
in health General Counsel, Partners administration. Mr. Henry received his J.D. degree from Yale
Law School, and a Master of Urban Studies from the Yale School of Art and Architecture. He
received his B.A. degree from Princeton University, where he studied in the Woodrow Wilson
School of Public and International Affairs.
John Hsu, MD, MBA, MSCE
Director of the Program for Clinical Economics and Policy Analysis, Mongan Institute for
Health Policy, MGH Lecturer in Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Hsu is the director of the Program for Clinical Economics and Policy Analysis within the
Mongan Institute for Health Policy, which he joined in January 2010. He studies innovations in
health care financing and delivery, and their effects on medical quality and efficiency. With a
background in internal medicine, health services research and clinical epidemiology, and health
care finance and management, Dr. Hsu brings clinical, population, and business perspectives to
these studies. In his work, he primarily uses large automated and electronic health record data
sets, often exploiting natural experiments from both clinical and behavioral economics
perspectives. Dr. Hsu’s current work focuses on the interplay between benefit design and delivery
system integration. He has collaborated closely with policy‐makers and organizational decision
makers to help implement changes based on his research findings. In 1999, after completing his
medical and post-graduate training at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Hsu took a position at
Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, CA, where most recently he served as Director of the Center for
Health Policy Studies, in the Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program.
Since 2001, he has been continually funded by multiple R01 grants (including from the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institute on Aging, and National Institute of
General Medical Sciences), and grants supported by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, The Commonwealth Fund, and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
(MedPAC), among other sources. His AHRQ grant R01 HS013902, “Prescription Drug Costsharing: Effects on Affordability and Patient Safety,” was the best scored project at AHRQ in
2003. One article from this drug cost-sharing study received Article-of-the-Year awards from
both AcademyHealth and the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes
Research in 2007. Dr. Hsu has given numerous invited research and other presentations at
national and international meetings, and to public and private health care stakeholders.
Lisa I. Iezzoni, MD, MSc
Director of the Mongan Institute for Health Policy, MGH Professor of Medicine, Harvard
Medical School
Dr. Iezzoni has spent more than two decades conducting health services research focusing on
three primary areas: risk adjustment methods for predicting cost and clinical outcomes of care;
use of administrative data for assessing health care quality; and health care experiences and
outcomes of persons with disabilities. After spending 16 years as Co‐Director of Research in the
Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
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Partners HealthCare
Center of Expertise in Health Policy and Management
Faculty Bios
Center, Dr. Iezzoni joined the MIHP as Associate Director in 2006. She is currently serving as
Director of MIHP.
Dr. Iezzoni has led numerous research grants with funding from the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality, National Institutes of Health, the Health Care Financing Administration,
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and other private foundations. An internationally
recognized expert in risk adjustment, she has edited Risk Adjustment for Measuring Health Care
Outcomes, now in its third edition. Dr. Iezzoni began her disability research with a 1996
Investigator Award in Health Policy Research from RWJF, and the book summarizing this work,
When Walking Fails: Mobility Impairments of Adults with Chronic Conditions, appeared in 2003.
Dr. Iezzoni has also published numerous original articles, editorials, and commentaries in major
medical and health services research journals.
Dr. Iezzoni serves on numerous committees and advisory boards including the National Institutes
of Health, the Institute of Medicine, the National Quality Forum, and The Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation Clinical Scholars Program. For the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
she served on the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (1994‐2001) and Secretary's
Advisory Committee on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2020
(2008‐2009). She has served on the editorial boards of the Annals of Internal Medicine, the
Journal of General Internal Medicine, Health Affairs, Medical Care, Health Services Research,
and the Disability and Health Journal, among others. In 2000, Dr. Iezzoni was elected to the
Institute of Medicine in the National Academy of Sciences.
Sheridan L. Kassirer
Vice President, Quality Management and Clinical Programs, Partners HealthCare
Ms. Kassirer oversees Partners Quality Management as well as the Partners Clinical Programs
She is also the Associate Director for High Performance Medicine focused on 5 major
system‐wide quality improvement efforts. Previously, Kassirer served in Vice President positions
at the BWH and other management positions at Children’s Hospital, Beth Israel Hospital and the
New England Medical Center. She has served in an operations role serving departments such as
Surgical Services, Medicine, Cardiac Services, Radiology as well as staff roles in Strategic
Planning and Quality Management. She was a founder of Pratt Medical Group, an academic
group practice for the Department of Medicine at Tufts New England Medical Center. Ms.
Kassirer holds an MBA from Northeastern University.
Ramin Khorasani, MD, MPH
Vice Chair of Radiology, Brigham & Women's Hospital
Dr. Khorasani leads the BWH Decision Systems Group (DSG), a biomedical informatics research
and development laboratory at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. Its
overall focus is on development of algorithms, software environments, and computer‐based tools
that support the work of health care professionals (physicians, nurses, and other practitioners) and
biomedical researchers. The DSG conducts research in computer‐based decision support for
patients and physicians, information retrieval, clinical information systems, image‐based
reasoning, bioinformatics, informatics for global health, and a variety of machine learning
applications. The DSG is a key participant in the Boston‐area Informatics Research Training
program. DSG faculty teach and supervise trainees in the Master's of Biomedical Informatics
program at Harvard‐MIT, as well as postdoctoral fellows (mostly MDs and PhDs in computer
science or statistics).
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Partners HealthCare
Center of Expertise in Health Policy and Management
Faculty Bios
Barbara J. McNeil, MD, MPH
Professor and founding head of the Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School
Barbara J. McNeil, MD, PhD, is the Ridley Watts Professor and founding head of the Department
of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. She is also a professor of radiology at Harvard
Medical School and at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Dr. McNeil’s research activities have focused on several areas, most notably technology
assessment and quality of care. Her most recent work includes three large studies supported by
the Department of Veterans Affairs. The first focused on a comparison of quality of care for
veterans with cardiac disease. The second related to quality of care in patients with cancer. She
has also recently finished an analysis of the infrastructure for research at VA. Dr. McNeil also
works closely with the national Blue Cross Blue Shield Association in several areas related to the
identification and dissemination of approaches to improving either the quality or the efficiency of
care in plans across the country.
Dr. McNeil received her AB degree from Emmanuel College, her MD from Harvard Medical
School, and her PhD from Harvard University. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine
(IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. McNeil is also a member of the Blue Cross Technology Evaluation Commission (TEC) and
the Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee. Previously Dr. McNeil served as a member of the
Prospective Payment Assessment Commission and the Publications Committee of the New
England Journal of Medicine.
Peter Markell
Executive Vice President of Administration and Finance, Partners HealthCare
Mr. Peter K. Markell is Partners Executive Vice President of Administration and Finance, with
responsibility and oversight of all administrative functions, finance, treasury and business
planning and contracting. Peter, has 34 years of health care experience, and has deep connections
in the community, as a member of the Boards of Trustees for Big Brother/Big Sister of Mass Bay
and Boston College; his relationships continually help to open our eyes to the needs of those we
serve. Prior to his roles at Partners, he served as a Partner with Ernst & Young LLP from 1977 to
1998 and Interim Chief Financial Officer for Massachusetts General Hospital from 1995 to 1996.
Peter serves as a Member of the Boston College Board of Trustees and a Member of their Finance
and Audit Committee. He serves as a Director of Eastern Bank. In addition, he serves as a
Director of several educational and charitable organizations. He was educated at Boston College,
Mr. Markell earned his BSBA in 1977.
Creagh Milford, DO, MPH
PHS Associate Medical Director for Population Health Management and Assistant Medical
Director at the Mass General Physician Organization
Dr. Milford is a staff physician practicing internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr Milford serves as an Associate Medical Director for Population Health Management at
Partners HealthCare and as an Assistant Medical Director at the Massachusetts General Physician
Organization (MGPO). Dr Milford works with MGPO, MGH, and Partners HealthCare senior
leadership to help execute administrative goals like care redesign, innovation, and population
health management. Prior to the completion of his MGH management fellowship, Dr Milford
worked at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to create
Stage 2 and Stage 3 clinical quality measures for Meaningful Use. Previously, he worked at the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, within the Special Program Office for Value-Based
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Partners HealthCare
Center of Expertise in Health Policy and Management
Faculty Bios
Purchasing, where he wrote the Hospital Acquired Conditions portion of the Inpatient Prospective
Payment System Final Rule.
Dr. Milford has worked as a health policy analyst and consultant for the American Medical
Association, American Osteopathic Association, the Marwood Group, and KPMG Consulting.
He holds his bachelor’s degree (BA) from the University of Colorado, his medical degree (DO)
from Midwestern University, and his Masters in Public Health (MPH) with a concentration in
Health Care Management and Policy from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr Milford
completed his residency in internal medicine through the University of Chicago and his
Fellowship in Health Policy and Management through MGH. He is an Assistant in Medicine at
Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He
also serves as Clinical Advisor to Excel Venture Management, where he focuses on Health IT
investments. A native of Birmingham, MI, Dr Milford now resides in Boston, MA.
Elizabeth G. Nabel, MD
President and Chief Executive Officer, Brigham & Women's Hospital
Elizabeth G. Nabel, MD, is the president of the Brigham and Women's/Faulkner Hospitals, a
position she assumed on Jan. 4, 2010. Prior to her position at BWH, Dr Nabel served as the
director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health. In
this capacity, Dr. Nabel oversaw an extensive national research portfolio with an annual budget of
approximately $3.0 billion to prevent, diagnose, and treat heart, lung, and blood diseases. A
native of St. Paul, Minnesota, she attended Weill Cornell Medical College and conducted her
internal medicine and cardiovascular training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard
Medical School, followed by faculty positions at the University of Michigan Medical School
where she directed the Division of Cardiology and the Cardiovascular Research Center.
Sanjay Pathak
Vice President, Surgical Services & Imaging, Brigham & Women's Hospital
Sanjay Pathak joined BWH in 2007 as vice president of Surgical Services and Imaging. In his
work, Pathak builds on collaborations with hospital leadership, chiefs of service, nursing and all
clinical teams to further the important work of the departments of Surgery, Neurosurgery,
Anesthesia, Orthopedics and Radiology. Pathak previously served as corporate director of
business planning and market development at Partners HealthCare, where he and his team
directed major strategic and capital initiatives. He has been deeply involved in many BWH
projects, including South Shore Hospital and the joint cancer center there with Dana‐Farber.
Pathak received his BS in biology at the University of Vermont and went on to Boston University
Graduate School of Management to earn an MBA and the Boston University School of Medicine
to earn an MPH. He began his health care career at New England Medical Center in clinical risk
management.
James M. Perrin, MD, FAAP
Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Associate Chair, MassGeneral Hospital for
Children
James M. Perrin, M.D., is professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and former director
of the Division of General Pediatrics and the Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy at the
MassGeneral Hospital for Children, a research and training center with an active fellowship
program in general pediatrics. He currently heads the MGH coordinating center for the Autism
Treatment Network. He chaired the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Children
with Disabilities and is past president of the Academic Pediatric Association (APA). He was
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Partners HealthCare
Center of Expertise in Health Policy and Management
Faculty Bios
founding editor of the APA journal, Academic Pediatrics, for 10 years. He is president-elect of
the American Academy of Pediatrics.
His research has examined asthma, middle ear disease, children’s hospitalization, health
insurance, and childhood chronic illness and disabilities, with recent emphases on epidemiology
of childhood chronic illness and organization of services for the care of children and adolescents
with chronic health conditions. He served on the Institute of Medicine Committees on Maternal
and Child Health under Health Care Reform, Quality of Long-Term-Care Services in Home and
Community-Based Settings, Enhancing Federal Healthcare Quality Programs, and Disability in
America; the National Commission on Childhood Disability, and the Disability Policy Panel of
the National Academy of Social Insurance (Chair, Children’s Committee). He received a Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research. He served as a member
of the Health Care Technology study section of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research
and of the National Advisory Council for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Ann Prestipino
Senior Vice President of MGH Surgical and Anesthesia Services and Clinical Business
Development
Ann L. Prestipino currently serves as the Senior Vice President for Surgical and Anesthesia
Services and Clinical Business Development at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and
the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization (MGPO) located in Boston, Massachusetts.
Ann received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Human Biology from Brown University and a
Masters in Public Health Degree from Yale University. She began working at the Massachusetts
General Hospital during the 1980’s and has been there ever since. She began her career as the
Assistant to the Director of Operations, moving on to the Administrative Director for Emergency
Services and then becoming the Director of Patient Services. In 1989 Ann was promoted to the
position of Assistant General Director for Surgical and Anesthesia Services and in 1992 became
Vice President for these areas.
In 2001 she was promoted to Senior Vice President. In her current role Ann is directly
responsible for all administrative and financial aspects including the clinical, educational and
research programs in the Departments of Surgery, Anesthesia and Critical Care and Pain
Medicine, and Emergency Medicine as well as related hospital departments. In addition, she
serves as the senior executive responsible for Strategic Planning and the Clinical Business
Development Program for the MGH/MGPO and specifically oversees the MGH Cancer Center,
the MGH Institute for Heart, Vascular and Stroke Care and the MGH Transplant Center. She
serves as Senior Advisor to the Partners Emergency Preparedness Committee and chairs the
MGH Emergency Preparedness Committee. She sits on a wide number of committees involved
in both the overall administration of the hospital and the physician organization. She is also a
Teaching Associate at Harvard Medical School in its Department of Anesthesia.
In 2010, Ann was asked to establish the Office of Strategy Implementation for the Partners
Healthcare System in addition to her MGH/MGPO role and served as its director on a part time
basis until early 2013.
She serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Boston MedFlight, Board of Trustees for
Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, and is a member of the American Public Health Association and the
American College of Health Care Executives.
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Center of Expertise in Health Policy and Management
Faculty Bios
Michael L. Reney
BWF Chief Financial Officer, Brigham &Women's Hospital
As chief financial officer for Brigham and Women’s and Faulkner Hospitals, Michael Reney is
responsible for all financial related services for BW/F, covering $2 billion+ in gross revenues
each year. He plays a major role on the executive leadership team in business decisions and
financial agreements. Mr. Reney began his career at Brigham and Women’s Hospital as an
accounting supervisor in 1990. He managed eight accountants, was responsible for cashier’s
office and worked with the clinical improvement team that focused on expanding access for
patients and improved registration. With the formation of Partners HealthCare and the
centralization of financial services for the member hospitals, Reney rose through the ranks as a
senior manager and director over a 10 year stretch before coming back to the Brigham as
executive director/controller for BW/F Finance in 2000. Reney holds a bachelor’s degree in
accounting from Bentley College and a master’s degree in business administration with a
concentration in health care financial management from UMass.
Joan A. Sapir, EdM, MBA
Senior Vice President, Massachusetts General Hospital and Mass General Physicians
Organization
Joan A. Sapir provides support, guidance and leadership to Neurology, Neurosurgery, Pediatrics,
Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dermatology, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Molecular
Biology, the Center for Community Health Improvement, the Benson Henry Institute for Mind
Body Medicine, the Home Base Program and the Lurie Center for Autism. Ms. Sapir graduated
from Yale University with a Bachelors Degree in Psychology, and received a Masters in
Educational Administration and Organizational Behavior and a Masters of Business
Administration from Harvard University. She joined Mass General in 1986 as a project manager
and subsequently inaugurated the position of Vice President of Customer Service and Practice
Support before assuming her current position.
Steven E. Seltzer, MD
Chairman, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Dr. Seltzer has been the Chairman of the Department of Radiology at Brigham and Women's
Hospital and the Philip H. Cook Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School since 1997.
He is the immediate past‐Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Brigham and Women's
Physician Organization. His clinical interests are in the field of abdominal imaging, particularly
advanced applications of helical CT. His research interests are in the arena of perception and
psychophysics, focusing on improving our understanding of how radiologists detect, locate and
classify abnormalities on diagnostic images. He has published well over 100 peer‐reviewed
research manuscripts on these topics.
Peter L. Slavin, MD
President, Massachusetts General Hospital
Peter L. Slavin, MD, has been the president of Massachusetts General Hospital since 2003. From
1999–2002, he served as chairman and chief executive officer of the Massachusetts General
Physicians Organization, which included over 1,700 physicians and employed nearly 1,000 of
them. From 1997–1999, Dr. Slavin served as president of Barnes‐Jewish Hospital in St. Louis,
Miss. Before that, he did his training in internal medicine at Mass General from 1984–1987 and
was senior vice president and chief medical officer from 1994–1997. Dr. Slavin graduated from
Harvard College in 1979, Harvard Medical School in 1984 and Harvard Business School in 1990.
Dr. Slavin teaches internal medicine and health care management at Harvard Medical School,
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Partners HealthCare
Center of Expertise in Health Policy and Management
Faculty Bios
where he is a professor of health care policy. He lectures widely on topics including quality and
utilization management, the economics of teaching hospitals and the state of physician practices.
Allen Smith, MD, MS
President, Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization (BWPO)
Allen Smith is president of the Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization (BWPO), a
faculty practice plan for over 1,200 physicians. His chief responsibilities include leadership of
overall BWPO strategy and core functions as well as BWH/BWPO network development. He is
also involved in physician leadership development, ambulatory improvement, contracting
strategy, health care policy, and physician work‐life issues. Prior to this Allen was Chief Medical
Officer of BWPO, in which he led contracting, pay for performance programs and was involved
in network development and leadership development. He has also served as Assistant
Vice‐President for Strategy and Business Planning at Tufts Health Plan and medical director for
Secure Horizons, Tufts Health Plan for Seniors. Allen began his medical career as a primary care
physician at North Shore Medical Center for nearly 10 years and was medical director of
Lynnfield Medical Associates in Peabody, MA. He has a BA from Dartmouth College, an MD
from University of Massachusetts Medical School, and a Masters in Science in Health
Administration and Population Health from University of Wisconsin in Madison. He is an
Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Ryan Thompson, MD, MPH
Associate Director for Quality Improvement, MGH Department of Medicine; Associate Program
Director for Health Policy and Quality Improvement, MGH Department of Medicine Residency
Program
Dr. Thompson is a general internist providing outpatient care in the MGH Internal Medicine
Associates, and inpatient care with the MGH Complex Care Service. His work in MGH
administration includes developing quality improvement and care redesign strategies in the MGH
Department of Medicine, working with the MGH Integrated Care Management Program for highcost Medicare beneficiaries, and leading the MGPO Continuous Care Initiative. He has a strong
interest in developing innovative programs to educate housestaff in health policy, health care
systems, and quality improvement. Dr. Thompson developed the Health Policy Seminar for
Residents in the MGH Department of Medicine, an annual two-week course composed of
discussions with local and national experts in health policy, as well as field visits to policy-related
settings and organizations. This program served as a model for the grant-funded Center of
Expertise Health Policy Certificate Program, which Dr. Thompson leads and in which 70 Partners
residents have participated.
David F. Torchiana, MD
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Massachusetts General Physicians Organization
Dr. David Torchiana is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Massachusetts General
Physicians Organization. The MGPO, associated with the Massachusetts General Hospital, is a
member of the Partners HealthCare System and a teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical
School. The organization is a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation and the largest physician group
practice in New England, representing more than 2,400 physicians.
Dr. Torchiana graduated from Yale College in 1976 and Harvard Medical School in 1981. He
completed residencies in general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery at the MGH before joining
the Department of Surgery in 1989. Dr. Torchiana became Chief of Cardiac Surgery at MGH in
1998 and CEO of the MGPO in 2003, and is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard
Medical School.
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Center of Expertise in Health Policy and Management
Faculty Bios
Sharon A. Vitti
Vice President of Clinical Services, Brigham & Women's Hospital\
Sharon Vitti is BWH Vice President of Clinical Services, a role she has held since 2006. Prior to
that appointment she served as department administrator for Obstetrics and Gynecology. As VP
she oversees Women's Health, Obstetrics and Gynecology, New Born Medicine and Ambulatory
Services. In this role she develops and achieves strategic, financial, teaching, research and clinical
goals. Vitti has a master's degree in Public Administration from New York University and a
bachelor's degree in psychology and biology from Clark University. She joined BWH as
OB/GYN department administrator in March 2004 after spending six years as a senior manager in
health care consulting. She also has held administrative leadership positions at the former New
England Deaconess Hospital and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Vitti is BWH's first
vice-president level leader dedicated to ambulatory services.
Michael J. Zinner, MD
Chairman, Department of Surgery, Brigham & Women's Hospital
Dr. Michael J. Zinner is the Moseley Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, the
Surgeon-in-Chief at the Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), and Clinical Director of the
Dana Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center. In 1988, he became Chairman of the
Department of Surgery at UCLA Medical School and Medical Center. Dr. Zinner was appointed
Dean for Clinical Affairs at UCLA Medical School in 1993. He served in both capacities until
1994 when he moved to Boston to become the Chairman of the Department of Surgery at BWH.
In 1997, Dr. Zinner was appointed to the Board of Directors of Partners HealthCare System. He
also served on the Advisory Board of the Institute for Health Care Policy at the Heller Graduate
School at Brandeis University. In 2004, he established the Center for Surgery and Public Health,
a collaboration between the Harvard Medical School (through the Department of Surgery at the
Brigham &Women's Hospital) and the Harvard School of Public Health. He is past Chairman of
the Board of Governors of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and is now a Regent of that
College. He is also Chairman of the ACS Health Policy and Advocacy Committee in Washington
DC.
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