Tom Delbanco, MD, & Jan Walker, RN, MBA

Co-Founders

Tom  is the John F. Keane & Family Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). Educated at Harvard College and the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr Delbanco trained in internal medicine at Bellevue, Harlem, and Presbyterian Hospitals in New York. Following military service, he came to Boston where, until 2002, he was Chief of the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a unit he founded and led for more than 30 years. At the former Beth Israel Hospital, Dr Delbanco created one of the first primary care practice and teaching programs at an academic health center, and in 1979 he developed and led the Harvard Medical School Faculty Development and Fellowship Program that has now prepared more than 300 general internists for academic careers.

In 1998, Dr. Delbanco was named a Master of the American College of Physicians (ACP), and in 2000 he became the initial incumbent of the Koplow-Tullis Chair in General Medicine and Primary Care at HMS, the first chair in primary care at the School. In 2003, he received the Robert J. Glaser Award, the highest honor awarded by SGIM, and in 2006, HMS gave him the William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award. Dr Delbanco and his colleague, Jan Walker, are the co-founders of “OpenNotes,” an international effort to promote and examine the impact of increasing transparency in care by inviting patients to read and contribute to their medical records. In 2017, HMS appointed Dr Delbanco as the John F. Keane & Family Professor of Medicine, a chair created to promote patient engagement, safety, and healthcare value through fully transparent communication among patients, families, and clinicians. In 2019, the ACP named him as the recipient of its highest annual honor, the John Phillips Memorial Award, established in 1929.

 

Jan is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the research faculty in the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Her primary research interests are in patients’ perspective on care, the use of information technologies to improve their experience, and strategies to reorganize and improve primary care practice.

Jan formerly served as Vice President for Client Services and Research at the Picker Institute, an organization devoted to measuring patient experiences and incorporating the patient perspective into care. She was the founding Executive Director of the Center for Information Technology Leadership at Partners HealthCare, and also directed national program evaluation for the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship. Educated at the University of Kansas (BSN) and Boston University (MBA), she has a clinical background in nursing. Her publications have focused on patient perspectives on hospital care, interoperability among critical elements of the health system, and patient insights into new electronic technologies.