Tom Delbanco, MD, MACP, to receive national award from the American College of Physicians

April 24, 2023

Tom Delbanco, MD, MACP, to receive national award from the American College of Physicians

Tom Delbanco, MD, MACP, has been awarded the John Phillips Memorial Award from the American College of Physicians, a national organization of internists. The award will be presented at ACP’s Convocation Ceremony on Thursday, April 27, 2023, in Hall D, San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA.

Established by ACP’s Board of Regents in 1929, the award is bestowed for outstanding, lifetime work in clinical medicine that has been innovative and/or had a regional or national impact. Clinical medicine includes all aspects of clinical research or the practice of medicine.

Dr. Delbanco is the John F. Keane & Family Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). Educated at Harvard College, Columbia Medical School, and in residencies at Bellevue, Presbyterian, and Harlem Hospitals in New York City, Dr. Delbanco was the founding Chief of the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at BIDMC, a unit he led for more than 30 years.

A founder of the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM), he also served as its president. He created one of the first primary care practice and teaching programs at an academic health center and in 1979 developed and led the HMS Faculty Development and Fellowship Program that has prepared more than 300 general internists for academic careers.

A primary care physician and author of more than 200 scholarly papers, he has co-edited four books, was senior editor of JAMA’s Clinical Crossroads, led four Salzburg Global Seminars, and held the Koplow-Tullis Chair in General Medicine and Primary Care, the first HMS chair in primary care. In 2017, Dr. Delbanco was awarded the Keane Professorship at HMS, a chair created to promote patient engagement, safety, and health care value through fully transparent communication among patients, families, and clinicians.

He has received awards for mentoring, the advancement of female faculty, and for his role nationally in general medicine. Dr. Delbanco and his colleague, Jan Walker, RN, MBA, created OpenNotes, the international movement establishing a new standard of care that spreads the benefits of transparent communication throughout healthcare. Dr. Delbanco was elected a Master of the American College of Physicians in 1998. Election to Mastership recognizes outstanding and extraordinary career accomplishments.