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

Boston, Mass. – Tom Delbanco, MD, MACP, the John F. Keane & Family Professor of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Harvard Medical School, will receive the John Phillips Memorial Award from the American College of Physicians (ACP).  Established in 1929, the award recognizes outstanding, lifetime work in clinical medicine that has been innovative and/or had a regional or national impact. Delbanco will receive the award in April at the ACP's Convocation Ceremony during the organization’s annual scientific conference and Internal Medicine Meeting 2020.

A primary care physician, Delbanco was the founding Chief of the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at BIDMC for more than 30 years. 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, which has prepared more than 300 general internists for careers in academic medicine.

He has received awards for mentoring, the advancement of female faculty, and for his role nationally in general medicine. In 2010, Delbanco and his colleague, Jan Walker, RN, MBA, created OpenNotes, the international movement urging that clinicians invite patients to read the notes they write and to contribute to their medical records. Delbanco was elected a Master of the American College of Physicians in 1998.

Delbanco is also a founder and past president of the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM).  He has authored more than 200 scholarly papers, co-edited three books and served as senior editor of JAMA’s Clinical Crossroads. He also held the Koplow-Tullis Chair in General Medicine and Primary Care, the first Harvard Medical School chair in primary care. In 2017, 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.

Delbanco received his undergraduate degree at Harvard College and his medical degree at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.  He completed residency programs at Bellevue Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and Harlem Hospital in New York City.