BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
330 Brookline Avenue
Boston, MA 02215

The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area within walking distance to Harvard Medical School, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and public transportation. The Fellowship site within the Research Program is located in the Section for Research of the Division of General Medicine offices at 1309 Beacon Street in Brookline, less than one mile from the main campus.

The Division of General Medicine is committed to excellence in patient care, teaching, research and leadership. Our faculty and staff enjoy collaborating across our clinical, education, and research programs in our pursuit to provide the highest quality of care possible to all people. Central themes of the Division include celebrating diversity, caring for underserved patients, and enhancing patient-centered care through collaboration and shared decision-making. The Division encourages and supports professional development and scholarship. The Division is led by Dr. Eileen Reynolds. The Research Program is led by Dr. Edward R. Marcantonio, Section Chief for Research, and Dr. Kenneth Mukamal, Associate Section Chief.

Together, our nationally recognized faculty, biostatisticians, administrative and research staff provide a strong foundation for the Fellowship Program.

Our research mission is to conduct interdisciplinary patient-centered research with the overarching themes of improving care for vulnerable populations, developing and studying innovative approaches to addressing common but challenging clinical issues, and measuring and improving quality of care. We support focused research programs in aging, cancer, cardiovascular health, lifestyle and health behaviors, end of life and palliative care, health disparities, and shared decision-making. We employ a variety of research methodologies including secondary analysis of large databases, qualitative methods, and traditional quantitative research methods such as surveys, observational and analytic epidemiology, and interventional trials. The Division's investigations hold both clinical implications and relevance for public health and health services delivery; therefore, we research how to implement and disseminate our findings locally and nationwide.

Our Research Section is particularly renowned for its culture of mentorship. Many of our faculty have received individual awards for excellence in mentorship from Harvard (Drs. Schonberg, Kaptchuk, Wee, Yeh, Marcantonio, Mukamal, McCarthy, and Davis) and/or K24 mentoring grants from NIH, and the Section as a whole was the first recipient of Harvard Medical School’s Program Award for a Culture of Excellence in Mentorship.

A few examples from recent Fellows' research include:

Healthcare disparities and healthcare for underserved populations
Cancer cancer screening utilization and risk assessment
Decision making in women's health
End-of-life care services and outcomes

Patterns of use and effectiveness of integrative medical therapies
Medication prescribing practices and adverse outcomes in the inpatient setting
Patient engagement and innovations in primary care and health decision-making
Effects of inviting patients to read their doctor’s notes National trends in Use of Low Value Care

Teaching electronic patient-doctor communication using a patient-web portal
Early vs late predictors of readmission in an academic medical center
Disparities in opioid prescribing at hospital discharge
Primary care and older adults perceptions on telemedicine primary care
Social networks and longevity among older adults