Michelle E. Morse | |
---|---|
Born | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
Academic background | |
Education | B.S., French, 2003, University of Virginia M.D., 2008, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania MPH, 2012, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Brigham and Women's Hospital Harvard Medical School |
Michelle Evelyn Morse [1] is an American internist. She is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women's Hospital and co-founded EqualHealth and Social Medicine Consortium. In 2021,Morse was named the first Chief Medical Officer of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Morse was raised in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania,to a public school teacher. Morse earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in French in 2003 from the University of Virginia and her medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 2008. [2] In medical school at the University of Pennsylvania,she had her first exposure to global health when she worked in a pediatric clinic in Guatemala. Morse also took a year off from medical school to conduct research on tuberculosis in Botswana. [3] Following this,she received a Master's in Public Health from the Harvard School T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2012. [4]
As part of her residency training,Morse worked several months per year in the Partners in Health-supported hospital in Lascahobas,Haiti,during which she realized she had more formal training than all of her Haitian colleagues. As a result,she co-founded EqualHealth in 2011,a non-governmental organisation that "aims to inspire and support the development of Haiti's next generation of healthcare leaders through improving medical and nursing education and creating opportunities for growth amongst health professionals." [5] Some of the activism Morse is involved with through EqualHealth includes the Campaign Against Racism that she co-founded with Camara Jones,past president of the American Public Health Association. It is a network of 23 chapters in 10 countries,with 250 active members,"uncovering racial capitalism and reimagining a future where sociocultural,political and economic systems work towards health equity,rather than against it." [6] These efforts were supported by a $100,000 grant from the Soros Equality Fellowship in 2018. [7] [8]
Following this collaboration,Morse served as Deputy Chief Medical Officer for Partners in Health (PiH) from 2012 to 2016 and served as the Director of Medical Education and the Advisor to the Medical Director of Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais in Haiti. [9] While serving in her role as Deputy CMO,Morse also co-founded Medicine Consortium,a global coalition that advocates,educates,and conducts research using the lens of social medicine so that health professional education can more honestly align with the root causes of illness. [10]
In 2013,Morse worked to open and operate a 300-bed teaching hospital in Mirebalais,Haiti,and launched the first three residency training programs at the hospital. [11] Upon returning to North America and completing her Master's in Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health,Morse also assumed the position of Assistant Program Director for the Internal Medicine residency program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. [12] While serving in her role as Deputy CMO in 2015,Morse also co-founded Social Medicine Consortium with Michael Westerhaus,a physician. The consortium is a global coalition with the stated aim of advocating,educating,and conducting research using the lens of social medicine. [13] [14] She later worked as a Clinical Instructor and then an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. [1]
Morse has also worked in the area of health policy. From September 2019 to January 2021,she served as one of the six professionals selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy and worked with the Ways and Means Committee,Majority Staff,in the U.S. House of Representatives. [15] Following this,she also published Creating Real Change at Academic Medical Centers - How Social Movements Can Be Timely Catalysts to describe her work on heart failures. [16]
In February 2021,Morse was made the first chief medical officer of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and succeeded Torian Easterling as head of the Center for Health Equity and Community Wellness. Health Commissioner Dave A. Chokshi,a physician,said Morse's experience combined the "best of public health,social medicine,anti-racism education,and activism.” [17] Her primary role as chief medical officer is addressing gaps between public health (and the Department) and the healthcare sector. She oversees CHECW's work to understand health inequities and end disparities relating to premature mortality,racial inequity,and chronic disease,among others. [18] Having previously published on medical racism in the United States, [19]
The next month,in March 2021,Morse co-authored an op-ed with Bram Wispelwey on that topic in the Boston Review. [20] In the article,Morse argued in favor of federal reparations. She also advocated for preferential treatment of Black and Latinx patients admitted with heart failure exacerbations. Her writing received criticism from researcher Christopher Rufo for being a "moral crime and unconstitutional." [21] Health equity leaders David A. Ansell,Brittani James and Fernando G. De Maio published a related piece in the New England Journal of Medicine,writing,"This effort is not about race-preferential treatment,as the neo-Nazis and others on the political right have claimed,but about eliminating obstacles to care that harm systematically excluded populations." [22] Global health leaders Paul Farmer,Sheila Davis,and Ophelia Dahl of Partners In Health supported Morse's and her co-author's analysis in the Boston Review,writing,"Over the past decade,Morse and Wispelwey,in particular,put heart and soul into addressing deficiencies in the medical system in the United States and medical systems around the world." [23]
In June 2022,a Smithsonian Channel series,"Cyclebreakers," featured Morse for her work serving communities that have been traditionally excluded from healthcare access in the United States,as well as Botswana,Haiti and Guatemala. [24] The eight-minute video was posted to the Smithsonian Channel's social media accounts,including TikTok. [25]
As New York City's first chief medical officer,Morse played a pivotal role in dismantling a decades-long reliance on a racially biased algorithm for kidney function estimation that disproportionately affected Black patients,leading to inadequate treatment and prolonged transplant waits. Starting 2021,she oversaw a transformation,convincing major hospital networks including Northwell Health to abandon the algorithm. Her leadership through the Coalition to End Racism in Clinical Algorithms has not only focused on kidney-related issues but also addressed disparities in areas such as unnecessary C-sections for Black and Hispanic pregnant women. [26]
Massachusetts General Hospital is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston,Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvard University,and houses the world's largest hospital-based research program with an annual research budget of more than $1.2 billion in 2021. It is the third-oldest general hospital in the United States with a patient capacity of 999 beds. Along with Brigham and Women's Hospital,Mass General is a founding member of Mass General Brigham,formerly known as Partners HealthCare,the largest healthcare provider in Massachusetts.
Mass General Brigham (MGB) is a not-for-profit,integrated health care system that engages in medical research,teaching,and patient care. It is the largest hospital-based research enterprise in the United States,with annual funding of more than $2 billion. The system's annual revenue was nearly $18 billion in 2022. It is also an educational institution,founded by Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. The system provides clinical care through two academic hospitals,three specialty hospitals,seven community hospitals,home care services,a health insurance plan,and a robust network of specialty practices,urgent care facilities,and outpatient clinics/surgical centers. It is the largest private employer in Massachusetts. In 2023,the system reported that from 2017–2021 its overall economic impact was $53.4 billion –more than the annual state budget.
Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is the second largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the largest hospital in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston,Massachusetts. Along with Massachusetts General Hospital,it is one of the two founding members of Mass General Brigham,the largest healthcare provider in Massachusetts. Robert Higgins,MD,MSHA serves as the hospital's current president.
Paul Edward Farmer was an American medical anthropologist and physician. Farmer held an MD and PhD from Harvard University,where he was a University Professor and the chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was the co-founder and chief strategist of Partners In Health (PIH),an international non-profit organization that since 1987 has provided direct health care services and undertaken research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. He was professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Elizabeth Nabel is an American cardiologist and Executive Vice President of Strategy at ModeX Therapeutics and OPKO Health. Prior to this role,she served as President of Brigham Health and its Brigham and Women's Hospital,Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School,and Director of the NIH's National Heart,Lung,and Blood Institute.
Joia Stapleton Mukherjee is an associate professor with the Division of Global Health Equity at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Since 2000,she has served as the Chief Medical Officer of Partners In Health,an international medical non-profit founded by Paul Farmer,Ophelia Dahl,and Jim Kim. She trained in Infectious Disease,Internal Medicine,and Pediatrics at the Massachusetts General Hospital and has an MPH from Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Mukherjee has been involved in health care access and human rights issues since 1989,and she consults for the World Health Organization on the treatment of HIV and MDR-TB in developing countries. Her scholarly work focuses on the human rights aspect of HIV treatment and on the implementation of complex health interventions in resource-poor settings.
Sachin H. Jain is an American physician who held leadership positions in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). From 2015 to 2020,he served as president and chief executive officer of the CareMore Health System. In June 2020,it was announced that he would join the SCAN Group and Health Plan as its new president and CEO. He is also adjunct professor of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine and a Contributor at Forbes. In 2018,he was named one of American healthcare's most 100 most influential leaders by Modern Healthcare magazine (#36).
Howard Haym Hiatt was an American medical researcher involved with the discovery of messenger RNA. He was the onetime chair of the department of medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston from 1963 to 1972. He was dean of the Harvard School of Public Health from 1972 to 1984. He was co-founder and associate chief of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at the Brigham and Women's Hospital,and was also the Associate Chief of the hospital's Division of Global Health Equity. He was a founding head of the cancer division of Beth Israel Hospital. He was a member of the team at the Pasteur Institute,Paris,led by François Jacob and Jacques Monod,which first identified and described messenger RNA,and he was part of the team led by James Watson that was among the first to demonstrate messenger RNA in mammalian cells.
Paula Adina Johnson is an American cardiologist and the current president of Wellesley College. She is the first Black woman to serve in this role.
Dr. Harold L. Paz is the former executive vice president of health sciences at Stony Brook University and former chief executive officer of Stony Brook University Medicine. He is the former executive vice president and chancellor for health affairs at Ohio State University and chief executive officer of the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center. Prior to that,he served as executive vice president and chief medical officer at CVS Health/Aetna.
Lucila Ohno-Machado is a biomedical engineer and Deputy Dean for Biomedical Informatics at the Yale University School of Medicine. She is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the National Academy of Medicine.
Reshma Kewalramani,is the president and chief executive officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals,a biotechnology company based in Boston,Massachusetts,as of April 1,2020. She is the first female CEO of a large US biotech company. She was previously the chief medical officer and vice president of global medicines development and medical affairs at Vertex.
UchéBlackstock is an American emergency physician and former associate professor of emergency medicine at the New York University School of Medicine. She is the founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity,which has a primary mission to engage with healthcare and related organizations around bias and racism in healthcare with the goal of mobilizing for health equity and eradicating racialized health inequities. During the COVID-19 pandemic,Blackstock used social media to share her experiences and concerns as a physician working on the front lines and on racial health disparities and inequities exposed by the pandemic. She is best known for her work illuminating racial health inequities and her media appearances speaking about the COVID-19 pandemic. Blackstock became a Yahoo! News Medical Contributor in June 2020.
Sherry Hsiang-Yi Chou is a Canadian neurologist and an Associate Professor of Neurology and Chief of Neurocritical Care at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Medicine. She is a Fellow of the Neurocritical Care Society and the Society of Critical Care Medicine. During the COVID-19 pandemic Chou assembled a worldwide team of physicians and scientists to better understand the neurological impacts of COVID-19,forming the Global Consortium Study of Neurologic Dysfunction in COVID-19 (GCS-NeuroCOVID). The first report of this large,multicenter,multicontinent consortium found that neurological manifestations are present in 8 out of 10 adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and are associated with increased mortality.
Thea L. James is an American emergency medical physician as well as an Associate Professor,Associate Chief Medical Officer,and Vice President of the Mission at the Boston Medical Center in Boston,Massachusetts.
LaShyra "Lash" Nolen is an American medical student and science communicator. She is the first Black woman to become class president of the Harvard Medical School. In 2020 Nolen was selected by The Root as one of their Young Futurists.
Varda Shalev is an Israeli medical researcher,a professor of medicine at the Tel Aviv University School of Public Health,and a primary care physician. She is also the co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Alike. In 11.2022 she became a managing partner at Team8 foundry. Shalev sits on the Board of Directors of Teva Pharmaceutical since 2023.
Michelle Asha Albert is an American physician who is the Walter A. Haas Lucie-Stern Endowed Chair in Cardiology and professor of medicine at the University of California,San Francisco. Albert is director of the UCSF Center for the Study of Adversity and Cardiovascular Disease. She is president of the American Heart Association. She served as the president of the Association of Black Cardiologists in 2020–2022 and as president of the Association of University Cardiologists (2021–2022). Albert is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine,the American Society of Clinical Investigators and the Association of American Physicians.
Ala Stanford is an American pediatric surgeon. She is the founder of R.E.A.L. Concierge Medicine and the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium. She is also the first African-American female pediatric surgeon to be trained entirely in the United States.
Bisola Ojikutu is an American physician,disease specialist,and researcher. In July 2021,she was appointed as the executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission. Ojikutu is the fifth Commissioner of Public Health for the City of Boston and the first Black person to permanently hold this position. She currently serves on the Cabinet of Mayor Michelle Wu.