A Recognized World Center for Advancing Health Care through Science, Education & Technology
Domenick Bucci
MD, CPE, SSBB, FCPP
163RD PRESIDENT
PHILADELPHIA COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY
Philadelphia County Medical Society
2100 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, PA 19130 (215) 563-5343
www.philamedsoc.org
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Domenick Bucci, MD PRESIDENT
John M.Vasudevan, MD
IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT
David A. Sass, MD, FACP SECRETARY
Katherine Sherif, MD TREASURER
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Victoria Cimino, MD, MPH
Sharon Griswold, MD
Brian Hannah, MD
Cadence A. Kim, MD, FACS
William King, MD
Pratistha Koirala, MD
Elana McDonald, MD
Max E. Mercado, MD, FACS
Ricardo Morgenstern, MD
Natalia Ortiz, MD, DFAPA, FACLP
Dhruvan Patel, MD
Katherine Sherif, MD
Walter Tsou, MD, MPH
Graeme Williams, MD
Heta Patel
FIRST DISTRICT TRUSTEE
Michael A. DellaVecchia, MD, PhD
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Mark C. Austerberry
Editor
Tracy Hoffmann
163rd Inaugural and Awards Night Program of The Philadelphia County Medical Society
Excerpts from Dr. Domenick Bucci Inaugural Speech
I am deeply honored to accept the position of President, and I am profoundly grateful for the trust you have placed in me. First and foremost, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the Philadelphia County Medical Society for your unwavering support and collaboration. Your dedication and commitment to advancing healthcare have been instrumental in the progress we have made thus far.
To the residents and students who are the future of our profession, thank you for your energy, passion, and fresh perspectives. Your enthusiasm is a constant source of inspiration, and I am committed to ensuring that you have the support and resources you need to thrive in your careers.
As we look ahead, I am eager to focus on several key goals that will shape the future of healthcare in our county and beyond.
innovative solutions to the challenges we face and improve the overall health of our communities.
Third, we will actively involve the community and community leaders in their healthcare. It is vital that we engage with our communities to understand their unique needs and challenges. By doing so, we can develop targeted initiatives that promote health and well-being at the local level.
First, we must enhance communication among all healthcare workers. By fostering open and effective channels of communication, we can ensure that our patients receive the best possible care and that our healthcare system operates smoothly and efficiently.
Second, we will work to strengthen collaboration between payers and providers. This collaboration is essential for creating a healthcare environment that is both financially sustainable and focused on patient outcomes. By working together, we can find
Additionally, we are committed to ending healthcare disparities. Every individual deserves access to high-quality healthcare, regardless of their background or circumstances. We will work tirelessly to address and eliminate the barriers that contribute to these disparities.
Finally, we will engage with the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and other similar local physician organizations such as SILAMP, the Medical Society of Eastern Pennsylvania and our neighboring County Medical Societies to ensure that we are aligned with the latest advancements and best practices in medicine. This collaboration will enable us to continuously improve the care we provide and to stay at the forefront of medical innovation.
In closing, Together, we have the power to transform healthcare in our county and beyond. I am excited about the journey ahead and confident that, with your support, we will achieve great things.
Domenick Bucci, MD, and John Vasudevan, MD
INTRODUCTION
Good evening, it is with great pleasure that we welcome you to the 163rd Inaugural and Awards Night Program of The Philadelphia County Medical Society. Tonight, we recognize a few of Philadelphia’s exceptional physicians who are receiving awards for their dedication and achievements, including those physicians celebrating “50 Years” of medical service. We hope that you will take the time to read the biographies of our award recipients found in this program booklet.
Founded in 1849, The Philadelphia County Medical Society is celebrating 175 years of service to our physicians and community and continues to remain a staunch advocate for physicians, patients, and the support of public health in the community. The Society maintains high professional standards in the practice of medicine and medical education through its relationship with institutions, insurers, and providers, in order to address physician health policy concerns, in addition to public healthcare issues at the local, state, and national level. In order to maintain high quality healthcare in Philadelphia and the nation, it is critical that we gain the support and unity of everyone, not only in Philadelphia, but the nation.
The Philadelphia County Medical Society thanks and honors the leadership of our dedicated immediate past president, Dr. John Vasudevan, and the members of the PCMS Executive Committee and its Board of Directors, who have devoted countless hours to coordinate our ongoing activities at the local level and have led and mentored us at both the Pennsylvania Medical Society and the American Medical Association. We are grateful and thankful for their devotion and labors on behalf of PCMS.
We would like to thank our sponsors as well as our outstanding staff. We are forever indebted to them, for without their efforts and hard work this society could not exist. We look forward to sharing this evening of celebration of our proud history and the accomplishments of our members. We hope you enjoy the evening and the sharing of friendship!
Domenick D. Bucci, MD
President, The Philadelphia County Medical Society
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(From left to right) Domenick Bucci, MD, and John Vasudevan, MD, Past President, The Philadelphia County Medical Society
FEATURE continued
163rd Inaugural and Awards Night Program of The Philadelphia County Medical Society continued from page 5
Daniel Dempsey, MD, Cristol Award Winner
Joel Fein, MD, Practitioner of the Year Award winner, with family and friends
50 -Year Award Winners; from left to right: Benjamin Bloom, MD, Sally Lane, MD, Lee Rowe, MD, Ajit Sachdeva, MD, Anthony Benedetto, MD
(From left to right) Pratistha Koirala, MD, and Jeremy Maas
Top to bottom, left to right: David Fehm, William Van Decker, MD, Lynn Lucas-Fehm, MD, Curtis Miyamoto, MD
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Sally Lane, MD, 50-Year Award Winner
(From left to right) Domenick Bucci, MD, and Gregory Deavens, President and CEO of Independence Blue Cross/Independence Health Group
Ajit Sachdeva, MD, 50-Year Award Winner
163rd Inaugural and Awards Night Program of The Philadelphia County Medical Society continued from page 7
Domenick Bucci, MD, with family
(From left to right) Eileen Ryan (retired PCMS staff), Carol Love, MD, and Marvin Friedman
(From left to right) James Cristol, MD, Eileen Ryan and Shailendra Vaidya, MD
50-Year Award winners and their spouses; from left to right: Sally Lane, MD, and Christopher Lane, Dianne Benedetto and Anthony Benedetto, MD, and Lee Rowe, MD, and Lauren Rowe
Walter Tsou, MD, Practitioner of the Year Award presenter
(From left to right) Dianne Benedetto and Anthony Benedetto, MD
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Congratulations PCMS Installation and Awards Strittmatter Award Recipients:
The annual Strittmatter Award is the highest honor presented to a physician who has made the most valuable contribution to the healing arts. Established in 1923 by I. P. Strittmatter, MD, the award commends the recipient’s contribution to one of the fundamental sciences of medicine, having a beneficial influence on either surgery or medicine. In 2024 the award was given to two outstanding individuals.
Drew Weissman, MD, PhD
Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, is the Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research and Director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovation at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Weissman earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in biochemistry and enzymology from Brandeis University in 1981 and his MD and Ph.D. in immunology and microbiology in 1987, at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Weissman completed a residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, and he also took a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, where he worked with Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Dr. Weissman is recognized for his work alongside Katalin Karikó, PhD, in discovering the modified mRNA technology, which has launched a new era of vaccine development. Their mRNA research breakthrough has been used in both the BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines and has revolutionized the field of vaccine development. Dr. Weissman’s current research focuses on developing a pan-coronavirus vaccine to stop the next coronavirus epidemic, a universal flu vaccine, cancer therapeutics, and a vaccine to prevent herpes. Beyond infectious disease vaccines, his lab is developing vaccines for autoimmune diseases and food and aero allergens. New developments have resulted in the ability to target specific cells, tissues, and organs in vivo that is being used to modulate function and perform in vivo gene therapy.
Dr. Weissman holds many patents and has published over 300 papers. He has been recognized with numerous awards including the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, and the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology.
Congratulations Dr. Weissman, The Philadelphia County Medical Society is proud and honored to add the prestigious Strittmatter Award, its highest scientific award, to your many accomplishments.
Katalin Karikó, Ph.D.
Katalin Karikó, Ph.D., is Professor at her alma mater, University of Szeged, Hungary, and adjunct Professor of Neurosurgery, Perelman School of Medicine, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where she worked for 24 years. In addition, Dr. Karikó is the former Senior Vice President at BioNTech, Mainz, Germany, where she worked between 2013 and 2022.
For four decades, her research has been focusing on RNA-mediated mechanisms with the ultimate goal of developing in vitro-transcribed mRNA for protein therapy. She investigated RNA-mediated immune activation and together with Dr. Drew Weissman discovered that nucleoside modifications suppress immunogenicity of RNA. This groundbreaking work unlocked the opportunity for the therapeutic use of the mRNA. The nucleoside-modified mRNAlipid nanoparticle vaccine platform developed by Drs. Weissman, Norbert Pardi, and Karikó, was used to create the FDA-approved Covid-19 mRNA vaccines by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna that was crucial to fight the pandemic.
they demonstrated the IVT mRNA is inflammatory and thus unfit for therapeutic use. They identified uridine being responsible for this activation. In addition, they discovered that incorporating pseudouridine into the mRNA, the newly created mRNA was highly translatable and avoided activation of RNA sensors in human immune cells. As the result of this work, together with her colleagues at BioNTech, she demonstrated functional use of nucleoside-modified mRNA encoding antibodies targeting cancer cells and infectious pathogens.
In animal models of multiple sclerosis, they used autoantigen-encoding mRNA and proved that this novel mRNA technology can be used for induction of tolerization, thus opening the possibility to treat autoimmune diseases. Dr. Karikó also initiated a clinical study in which tumors of patients were injected with modified mRNAs encoding cytokines, thus promoting potent antitumor immunity and tumor eradication at local and remote sites.
Dr. Karikó received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from University of Szeged, Hungary, in 1982. Her thesis work involved synthesis and antiviral evaluation of 2’-5’-linked oligoadenylates, called 2-5A, that is responsible for the interferon-induced antiviral mechanism. She performed her research at the Biological Research Center, focusing on 2-5A generated with nucleoside analog, cordycepin.
In 1985, after moving to Temple University School of Medicine, she expanded her research on 2-5A molecules modified at their nucleosides and internucleotide linkages. In 1986, she helped to perform a clinical trial run at Hahnemann University, where HIV-infected patients were treated with mismatched double-stranded RNA to induce their antiviral systems.
In 1989 she joined the faculty of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania; there she used in vitro-transcribed (IVT) mRNA to overexpress selected proteins in cultured cells. Together with Drew Weissman, MD,
Dr. Karikó is co-inventor on 18 patents granted by the United States. Together with Dr. Weissman, they founded RNARx, a company dedicated to developing nucleoside-modified mRNA for therapy. In the last 3 years, for her achievements, Dr. Karikó received many prestigious awards, including the Japan Prize, the Horwitz Prize, the Paul Ehrlich Prize, the Benjamin Franklin Medal, the Keio Prize, the Canada Gairdner International Award, the Kovalenko Medal, the Tang Prize, the Warren Alpert Prize, the Princess Asturias Award, the BBVA Frontiers Award, the Harvey Prize, the Breakthrough Prize, the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Dr. Karikó is the mother of two-time Olympic Champion, 5-time World Champion rower Susan Francia.
The Philadelphia County Medical Society is proud to include the prestigious Strittmatter Award to her many honors. continued on next page
Congratulations PCMS Installation and Awards continued from page 11
Cristol Award Recipient:
The Cristol Award is presented to a physician member for their significant contributions to the Society furthering and enhancing the educational and charitable goals, purposes and functions of organized medicine. The award honors the memory of David S. Cristol, MD, an outstanding member of PCMS.
Daniel T. Dempsey, MD, MBA, FACS
Daniel T. Dempsey, MD, MBA, FACS, is Professor Emeritus of Surgery at Penn Medicine and has practiced Gastrointestinal Surgery for 35 years in Philadelphia. He has served as Chair of Surgery at Temple University and Pennsylvania Hospitals; Division Chief of GI Surgery at Penn Medicine, and Assistant Director of Peri-Operative Services at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Currently Dr. Dempsey is interim co-CEO at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
where he fell in love with both academic surgery and Philadelphia. He is grateful to the multiple mentors and role models there including Drs. Rhoads, Roberts, Barker, Mackie, Rosato, Mullen, and Daly.
Born and raised in the small rural upstate New York town of Cambridge, Dr. Dempsey credits his parents and high school science teachers for encouraging him to pursue medicine as a career. After college at Princeton (where he met his wife of 45 years, Barbara Seneca) he attended the University of Rochester School of Medicine and is grateful for the many physicians and surgeons there who inspired him, including Drs. Rob, Schwartz, Adams, Engle, and Romano. Dr. Dempsey then completed his surgical residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Dempsey has written over 130 original papers and 40 book chapters, and given more than 125 invited presentations at hospitals, medical schools and universities. He has been named many times in Philadelphia Magazine’s “Top Docs,” and America’s Top Doctors and Best Doctors in America. A member of The Philadelphia County Medical Society/Pennsylvania Medical Society and AMA for 40 years, Dr. Dempsey served as the 155th President of PCMS and continues to serve as a Delegate to the PAMED House of Delegates. In addition Dr. Dempsey has been active in many organizations including: past president and member of the Philadelphia Academy of Surgery; past president and member of Metro Philadelphia Chapter of the American College of Surgeons; past treasurer and member of the Board of Trustees at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia; past Governor, American College of Surgeons; member, American Surgical Association; Halsted Society; Southern Surgical Association; Society of University Surgeons; Association for Academic Surgery; Society of Surgical Oncology; Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (past vice-president); and Association for Surgical Education (past president of the foundation).
In 2019 Dr. Dempsey received the highest scientific award from PCMS, the coveted Strittmater Award.
Congratulations Dr. Dempsey! The Philadelphia County Medical Society is very proud to add the Cristol Award to your many honors.
Practitioner of the Year Award Recipient:
PCMS presents the annual Practitioner of the Year Award to a physician who has been nominated for dedication to the medical profession in the areas of quality patient care and community service. The award is supported by the Wiener Fund established by the late Jacob S. Wiener, MD, past member of PCMS.
Joel Fein, MD, MPH
Joel Fein, MD, MPH, is Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. He is also an attending physician and Senior Advisor for Advocacy and Health Policy for the Emergency Department, at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Dr. Fein is Co-Director of the Center for Violence Prevention at CHOP (www.chop.edu/ violence) and founded the CHOP Violence Intervention Program, one of the first pediatric Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs (HVIPs) in the nation.
Nationally, Dr. Fein is an Advisory Board member of the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention (the HAVI), where he also co-leads the Research and Evaluation Workgroup. He is a member of the leadership team for The Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress, part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.
Locally, Dr. Fein is a member of the Philadelphia County and Pennsylvania Medical Societies; the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Anti-drug Anti-Violence Network (PAAN). In addition, he has led or served on a number of citywide committees related to violence prevention.
Dr. Fein completed his B.A. in biology and psychology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. He received his medical degree from The New York University School of Medicine, and received his MPH at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; he is board Certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Emergency Medicine.
Dr. Fein has received funding from the NIH, CDC and Department of Health and Human Services and has published more than 100 peer-reviewed research papers on topics including violence prevention, pain management, and mental health in the emergency setting.
Dr. Fein has won numerous awards including the Physician of the Year Award from the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians; and the Scott Mackler Award for Excellence in Substance Abuse Teaching at the Perelman School of Medicine at Penn.
Dr. Fein is married to Dr. Vicky Levin, a General Pediatrician in Newark, Delaware; he is the proud father of three young men who are talented musicians. Music also plays a large part in Dr. Fein’s life, as a member of Osler Circle –a CHOP-based Beatles cover band that raises money for the hospital by playing at local venues in and around Philadelphia.
PCMS is proud to honor, thank and give recognition to Dr. Joel Fein. •
Meet Dr. Domenick Bucci, 163rd President of The Philadelphia County Medical Society
By Susan Shelly
Dr. Domenick Bucci, who was inducted on June 1 as the 163rd President of the Philadelphia County Medical Society (PCMS), grew up in the Marion section of Jersey City, New Jersey, just blocks from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church, where he served as an altar boy.
He and his parents attended church regularly, often accompanied by aunts, uncles, cousins, and other members of a large, extended family. Domenick also attended Our Lady of Mount Carmel School, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade church school founded more than 100 years ago to educate children of Italian immigrants.
He completed high school at St. Peter’s Prep, a Catholic, Jesuit college preparatory school for boys that claims discipline, academic achievement, and spirituality as its core values.
It was family, church, and school, Domenick said, that instilled a foundation of faith and values that have influenced and shaped his life.
School also ignited the spark that got him interested in studying medicine. When he was in seventh grade Domenick was assigned to write a report on the human digestive system. While doing so, he discovered he was fascinated by the workings of the human body.
His father, an insurance broker, and mother, a second-grade teacher, encouraged him to pursue his passion for medicine, sacrificing much to send him to prep school, college, and medical school to assure he could fulfill his dream.
Their confidence in him buoyed and encouraged Domenick to push past his own doubts and apply for medical school after graduating from Fairleigh Dickinson University with a degree in biology in 1983.
He applied at just one school—Ross University School of Medicine.
“I was accepted, and my parents packed me up and sent me to Ross University in the Caribbean,” Domenick said. “It turned out to be life changing. As I got immersed in the culture there, I realized the whole world isn’t like the United States and people in other countries don’t live the way we do here.”
Rotating among hospitals on various islands exposed him to different ways of practicing medicine and dealing with people who viewed life differently than from what he was accustomed to. He grew to admire the faith and resiliency of the islanders, who accepted death as part of life and celebrated the loved ones who had passed.
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Meet Dr. Domenick Bucci, 163rd President of The Philadelphia County Medical Society continued from page 15
In 1986 Domenick left medical school with a degree and an expanded world view to start his residency at St. Francis Medical Center (now Capital Health – East Trenton) in Trenton, New Jersey. He hadn’t been there long when he met a young nurse who four years later would become his wife and the mother of their four children.
While still in residency, Domenick got licensed to practice medicine in Pennsylvania and started working in emergency departments at various Philadelphia hospitals. As he and his wife started their family in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, he drove back and forth to complete long hospital shifts.
Domenick, who is board certified in internal medicine, realizes now that his experience as an emergency room doctor provided valuable life lessons that have remained with him throughout his career. An ED doctor, he said, quickly learns to assume the worst and cuts to the crux of a problem. If someone came in complaining of chest pain, he would immediately look for signs of a heart attack or aneurysm, only considering less serious possibilities once those had been ruled out.
That ability to see right to the core of an issue has been an invaluable asset in all areas of work, as well as in personal and professional relationships, Domenick explained.
He views himself as a bridge builder—anxious to facilitate conversation and encourage communication to address issues and disagreements.
“You’ve got to get to the origin of the problem before you can solve it,” he said. “People need to be able to talk to each other and
explore the issues together. We can agree to disagree, but we can’t ignore a problem and think everything will be okay.”
Domenick’s career as a practicing physician was interrupted in 2000, when he was recruited by Independence Blue Cross (IBX) to work as a Medical Director. Frustrated by the lack of time he was able to spend with his wife and children: Bella, twins Domenick and Olivia, and Michael, he agreed to take the job.
“I realized my kids were growing up without me and I wasn’t getting to know them,” he recalled. “I’d work night shift seven days in a row, and I wouldn’t see my kids for a week. I wanted to see them grow and be able to grow with them.”
Domenick remained at IBX for five years before joining Medecision, a medical software company, as Vice-President and Medical Director. That experience taught him to develop and deliver effective presentations, he said, another tool he still uses to facilitate communication.
Two years later he was recruited again, this time to serve as Chief Medical Officer for Frankford Healthcare Systems, a threehospital system employing 1,000 physicians. He felt at home there, Domenick said, back in the hospital, working with doctors, and wearing his white lab coat.
His next career move came in 2013, when he accepted a position as a Nationwide Physician Surveyor of Hospitals with The Joint Commission. Domenick traveled extensively in that job and it gave him a clear understanding of how the delivery of medicine varies from location to location across the country.
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia is seeking an exceptional leader to serve as the President and CEO. The ideal candidate should have a doctoral degree in medicine or its equivalent, extensive familiarity with nonprofit organizations, dedication to the College's mission, and the ability to engage and foster relationships with various stakeholders. The President and CEO will be responsible for leading the College, enhancing external relationships and fundraising efforts, nurturing a high-performing team, fostering a sense of shared mission with the Board and Fellows, and advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. The College includes the Mütter Museum and Historical Medical Library, which house collections of medical artifacts and provide educational resources. The College also has a Center for Education that offers STEM programs for high school students, and it is involved in public health initiatives, including the History of Vaccines project.
Please submit your CV and letter of interest to ceosearchcommittee@collegeofphysicians.org
Domenick refers to the years he worked for Medecision, Frankford, and The Joint Commission as “his interlude,” as in 2020 he was asked to return to IBX, where he currently serves as Vice President of Medical Management and Medical Policy.
The diversity of work experience enabled him to develop valuable insights into different areas of medicine, and to work effectively to solve problems among various groups of people. Domenick is looking forward to using those insights and skills as President of PCMS.
He specifically hopes to increase communication between physicians and insurers concerning issues such as prior authorization, the high cost of medications, mental health parity, and administrative work overload, with a goal of enhancing conditions for providers and their patients.
Having served on PCMS’s Board of Directors and as Treasurer and President-Elect, Domenick is looking forward to serving as a Delegate at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the AMA House of Delegates, set for June 8-12 in Chicago. He will pay close attention to resolutions raised there to better understand the problems and opportunities of providers, information he can then employ in his role at IBX to improve conditions for those working in the medical field.
While he believes health care must continue to expand, he feels something must be done to reduce its costs. He also is concerned about assuring equity in health care and in increasing access to mental health care, particularly to school-aged children.
Making additional mental health services available within schools to serve children who may not be able to otherwise access care is an important goal, he said, and something he’d like to
A CONVERSATION WITH CHERYL BETTIGOLE, MD
“Did
You Enjoy Being Health Commissioner?”
by Susan Robbin, MD
Being the Health Commissioner for the City of Philadelphia was the most professionally satisfying experience of my career. I worked with an incredibly knowledgeable, dedicated team and together we were able to accomplish a tremendous amount that I believe will make a real difference to health in the city. As someone who has been an advocate for much of my career, it was immensely fulfilling to be able to work to expand access to primary care, to pass an air toxics regulation that is among the most progressive in the country, and to be able to expand funding for the home lead intervention program so that we are able to offer services to all families with a child with an elevated lead level, to name a few of the things we got done over the past few years. And of course it was also tough – it’s a job that demands everything you have, and I served at a time that was particularly challenging for public health officials across the country. But looking back, I am just so grateful to have had the opportunity to do this work and to have served with such smart, dedicated staff.
What were the major challenges, especially unforeseen challenges, you faced – from administration, staffing, media, other organizations, etc.?
What was it like for you to step into the position during the middle of the Covid pandemic in one of the largest cities in the nation?
It was certainly a very intense experience. I was lucky to have experience in multiple divisions of the health department and that experience helped me to jump in quickly, but I could not have done that without the many capable staff members who helped me through the transition and the ensuing months. I was also very lucky to already be connected to many community leaders in the city through previous work, and they were incredibly helpful in helping me to understand the challenges they were seeing and the ways in which we could partner together to improve health in the city.
Rebuilding our leadership team after a huge amount of turnover in 2020 and 2021 was a huge challenge, but also an opportunity. We were able to recruit some amazing leaders, and it has been a real pleasure to see them take on new roles and challenges and help to take the department forward into the future. During my time in the role, the city faced unprecedented public health challenges, including not only the COVID-19 pandemic, but also multiple mass displaced person events (Operation Allies Welcome, United for Ukraine, and buses of migrants sent by the Texas governor), outbreaks of hepatitis A, mpox, and measles, and wildfire smoke that caused dangerously poor air quality, to name a few. We’ve seen in each of those challenges that groups within the city who have experienced historic and present-day racism and other forms of discrimination tend to be hit hardest by every public health challenge. It’s been a tremendous opportunity to be able to lead the department through those events, and to do my best to do so with compassion, cultural understanding, and use of evidencebased, equity-focused public health measures. And I’ve tried to ensure that the department came out of each of those events and experiences stronger and better able to take on such challenges in the future.
What training and experiences in your background best prepared you for the role?
This is the kind of role that you really have to bring your full self to. So certainly I relied on my background as a family doctor and my experience in the city health centers, as well as my public health training and experience in chronic disease and
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A
Conversation
with Cheryl Bettigole, MD “Did You Enjoy Being Health Commissioner?”
continued from page 19
injury prevention. But I also relied on my years of working in Philadelphia and existing relationships across the city. I am so, so grateful to the many people who answered my calls and emails over the past few years and who pitched in to help us strengthen policies and programs and to ensure that our work relied on the best public health science available as well as on the grounded experience of community leaders and city residents. We could not have done this work without our many partners across the city who jumped in, said yes when we needed them, and worked side by side with us to get the work done.
What do you consider to be the greatest accomplishments during your time at PDPH?
That’s a very hard question to answer, because it’s been such an intense period with so much going on. But if I had to pick, I would give two answers:
1) Repairing and expanding our city health centers: we were able to repurpose underspending after the closure of the outdated Philadelphia Nursing home to complete deferred maintenance projects at city health centers and to put together
plans and funding for the building of two additional city health centers that will help to address the painfully long waiting times for primary care in our city. The new health centers will be self-supporting once built, and we already have the funding and the sites identified, but there is still work to do to take the projects over the finish line. The new health centers will provide care for about 46,000 city residents and will be located in Northeast Philadelphia, which has seen tremendous growth in the diversity of its residents and in the need for healthcare access. I am particularly grateful that they will help solve the crisis in access to primary care for children in our city, with far too many children waiting months for an initial appointment for care, particularly in the Northeast, where waiting times for pediatric appointments at HC#10 average more than 5 months.
2) Operation Allies Welcome, in which we worked together with partners across the city and with federal, state, and city partners to provide medical and public health services to thousands of Afghan evacuees on about 48 hours notice, creating a model of care for mass displaced person events that has become the new federal model. In the late summer and
early fall of 2021, during the Delta wave of the pandemic, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and many other health department staff members worked 24/7 at the airport to run a medical triage unit, COVID-19 testing, and offered vaccinations for Afghans being evacuated by the US government. That unit provided care for about 1500 people out of the roughly 29,000 Afghans who came through Philadelphia, keeping our ERs from being overwhelmed, and treating conditions from severe diaper rash to gunshot wounds and complex congenital conditions.
What were your most rewarding moments, projects, relationships?
Being able to bring on new leaders and help them to succeed in their roles was very gratifying – I am enormously proud of the team we built together and the work we were able to take on as a result. Each of them brings different backgrounds and expertise to the work, and that helps to enrich our ability to think broadly about solutions and to connect with a wide variety of partners. Getting information about fentanyl in cocaine out in North Philadelphia, setting up a mpox vaccine clinic at a nightclub, and running vaccine clinic after vaccine clinic at sites chosen to best reach people living with homelessness were critical efforts that relied on committed staff willing to think out of the box to make our work as effective as possible. Getting to work side by side with partners at the airport operation and at the reception site for the buses bringing migrants from Texas was also deeply rewarding. There were community volunteers including local clergy and many others who showed up day after day at 6AM or at 10PM to meet the migrants arriving in the city from the Texas border and help them get oriented and settled – we really could not have done that work without them. And I am so very grateful to have had the support of Mayor Jim Kenney and Managing Director Tumar Alexander, who were committed to following the science and who treated me as a trusted partner in the work of improving health in the city.
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A Conversation with Cheryl Bettigole, MD “Did You Enjoy Being Health Commissioner?” continued from page 21
What
are
your future plans?
I’m still figuring that out, but am committed to doing work that I find meaningful and that continues the mission of improving systems of care and public health.
What do you think are the major challenges that lie ahead for the next Health Commissioner? What should be the next priorities for the City?
The city still faces enormous challenges, including overdose deaths, gun violence, the need to complete the work of building the new health centers to address the crisis in access to care, and the critical importance of preparedness. We have built a terrific team over the past few years, but sustaining and supporting the new leaders will be very important, as will continuing to invest in preparedness. The city needs to continue to invest in public health when there is not a pandemic to ensure that the department remains strong and able to respond in a crisis. That includes continued investment in public health communications, which has been such a major focus of our work over the past few years. Proactive communications and active engagement with the media allow us to educate the public, using interviews, press conferences, and press releases to get stories out without having to resort to expensive ad campaigns.
Do you think the City will be on solid footing when the next pandemic comes along?
I hope so – we have done a great deal of work over the past few years to ensure that we are prepared, and the health department’s Preparedness Program is staffed by smart, committed people. But funding for preparedness work and for public health in general is always a concern. We have to continue to fund that work when there is no crisis in order to be ready when there is. And we need our public health communications to be a consistently trusted source of information for the media and for city residents. •
