Dateline DFCI
Staff members' achievements earn assorted accolades
Investigators, administrators, and patients/families from Dana-Farber were recognized in recent months for their cutting-edge work on topics ranging from AIDS to quality of care.
Chief of Nursing Patricia Reid Ponte, RN, DNSc, FAAN, joins Krysta Doherty in the Jimmy Fund clinic.
Several members of the DFCI community were interviewed for a new, nationally distributed video showcasing the value of patient- and family-centered care at this and another healthcare organization. Among those appearing in the film, produced by the American Hospital Association and the Institute for Family-Centered Care, were Chief Operating Officer Jim Conway and Chief Medical Officer Lawrence Shulman, MD. Conway has also joined the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Drug Safety, a national panel examining the causes of medication errors and encouraging efforts to prevent them. Another patient safety advocate at Dana-Farber, Trustee Vincent O'Reilly, took part in the video and earned a leadership award from the New England Healthcare Assembly for his efforts to "transform the hospital community."
Dana-Farber researchers singled out recently include Ruth Ruprecht, MD, PhD, honored by the American Foundation for AIDS Research for her outstanding contributions to the field of women and HIV/AIDS — specifically for her work developing drug therapies to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Ronald DePinho, MD, meanwhile, was accorded one of the highest honors in the fields of medicine and health: election to the Institute of Medicine. And Jane Weeks, MD, was promoted to full professor at Harvard Medical School in recognition of her research on the quality, results, and costs of cancer care, as well as her mentoring of other physician-scientists.
In the nursing arena, Patricia Reid Ponte, RN, DNSc, FAAN, Dana-Farber's senior vice president for Patient Care Services and chief of Nursing, was inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in November. Reid Ponte, who also serves as director of Oncology Nursing and Clinical Services at partner Brigham and Women's Hospital, was cited as a leader in the creation of patient-centered, multidisciplinary care.
Finally, the Institute has collected several awards from the Environmental Protection Agency for significantly reducing paper, plastic, hazardous, and other waste — including the elimination of many mercury-containing products.
