Keeping the Light on for Excellence in Primary Care

Recently, we had a wonderful visit from our good friend and esteemed colleague, Dr. Tom Bodenheimer, MD, MPH. Tom, in his retirement, seems more active and engaged than ever. He’s currently Professor Emeritus of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and Founding Director of the Center for Excellence in Primary Care. While he was on the east coast visiting a notable practice in Boston, he made his way down to Middletown, CT, for a couple of days. He stayed in a local inn and took the opportunity to walk Middletown’s Main Street and side streets. It is common for him to use his restless energy to explore the communities he visits and think about the way local communities contribute to shaping health care systems.

It was a packed schedule as we shared information with him about many of CHC’s programs. We spent time talking about the Weitzman Institute, the Center for Key Populations, our various residency programs, and our medical assistant training program, NIMAA, for which he was a key inspiration.

He had great advice for us in all of these areas and was especially interested in our latest business intelligence project, NOVO, which we expect to launch early next year. NOVO is a system to help practices better manage their incoming calls. Stay tuned for more information.

We all could only be so lucky as to have the energy and wisdom of Tom Bodenheimer. Yet as he often says, he’s only a messenger talking stories from one successful health care group and sharing it with others. Thanks, Tom, the lights are still on.