November 10, 2000

The physician organizations of the MGH and BWH recently received one of the annual Nesson Awards for their collaborative smoking cessation programs. Established earlier this year, the Nesson Awards are presented in honor of H. Richard Nesson, MD, the founding father of Partners Community HealthCare, Inc. (PCHI), who conceived the idea of PCHI as a means to integrate and manage patient care.

The awards recognize programs that exemplify PCHI's best practices and its mission to enhance both the physician-patient relationship and the physician experience through innovation in medical practice and collaboration among physicians and medical centers in pursuit of excellence.

Awards were presented in three categories – collaboration, innovation and excellence – with an accompanying $5,000 grant to encourage further development of the award-winning programs. Additional grant funding was provided by Pfizer, Inc. The winning programs were chosen by members of PCHI's Care Improvement Council from nearly two dozen entries. Winners were announced at PCHI's annual meeting Sept. 19 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The MGH and BWH collaboration in smoking cessation began at PCHI's Quality Improvement Forum in January 2000, when BWH physicians heard a presentation by Nancy Rigotti, MD, director of the MGH Tobacco Research and Treatment Program. BWH physicians contacted the MGH, and learned of potential program funding from the state Department of Public Health for targeted community smoking intervention programs (four-year contracts financed by funds received from the tobacco settlement). Both institutions received state funding.

Smoking cessation leaders at the MGH and BWH now are collaborating on several levels, including jointly developing tools for physicians and patients that will be available to PCHI physicians through the Partners medical record. As a result of the collaboration, Rigotti invited BWH to participate as an additional study site for her NIH grant.

The MGH/BWH team received the award for collaboration. Innovation awards went to Burlington Medical Associates for its psychiatric social worker program and Compass Medical Associates for its diabetes education program. Excellence awards went to Pentucket Medical Associates for its cardiovascular quality improvement programs and Emerson Hospital for its chronic lung disease program.