National Pancreas Foundation Board Member, Dr. Steven Freedman, Honored!

The National Pancreas Foundation is honored to have a board of distinguished, accomplished and passionate member.  We want to highlight one of our board members, Steven Freedman, MD, PhD, a Dean at Harvard Medical School and senior physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.  He has been honored at two recent events and is working on an exciting project.

On April 23, 2010, Dr. Freedman was honored by the Boston Red Sox prior to the start of the game at Fenway Park.  This “Medical All Star” tribute by the Boston Red Sox is their way of showcasing and honoring leaders from the medical and research community of Boston.  Dr. Freedman was honored for his long term achievements and a Clinician and Scientist in the field of pancreatology.

On June 1, 2010, Dr. Freedman was given the A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award at Harvard Medical School.  This award is given to a select few faculty members at Harvard each year to acknowledge outstanding long term mentorship in clinical and translational research.

Dr. Freedman is also working on a critical but neglected area in health care reform – the patient-physician encounter.  By making the patient and their family informed partners in their care, his team believes this transparency and TRUST will lead to improved outcomes and decreased harm.

His team has developed and piloted a simple electronic communication tool, (called the Passport to TRUST program), where the potential causes of a patient’s symptoms are described to the patient and their family, any tests or treatments justified as to how this will change management, the timeliness and follow up mapped out, and their questions or concerns addressed. Following their successful pilot, they are about to initiate a larger controlled study at Harvard and other institutions to measure the effect on quality, patient satisfaction, expected cost savings and scalability. They will also be studying the incorporation of this model into training of medical students and residents at Harvard Medical School. Since physicians control 91% of costs, this structuring of the doctor-patient interaction is likely to have profound effects on improving quality while decreasing costs. This includes improving health literacy and improving compliance with medications and treatment regimens, especially as ‘personalized medicine’, genomics, and new technologies emerge. Dr. Freedman and his team is working directly with President Obama and his group at the White House and CMS.

Our sincere congratulations to Dr. Freedman and we look forward to hearing updates on his TRUST program.