January 12, 2007

In General

Katharine Treadway, MD, of MGH Internal Medicine, received the 2006 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. The award is presented annually to medical students and faculty members who best demonstrate the foundation's ideals of outstanding compassion in the delivery of patient care and respect for patients, their families and health care colleagues. Treadway is a primary care physician, an associate master of the Canon Society at Harvard Medical School (HMS), director of the newly created Introduction to the Profession course for all incoming HMS students and co-director of Patient-Doctor II, a required course for all second-year students at HMS.

In November, the American College of Surgeons approved the MGH as a Level 1a Bariatric Surgery Center, the highest level of certification. Because of this designation, weight loss surgery performed at the MGH now will be covered by Medicare. The hospital also is eligible for similar designation by Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of Massachusetts when the BCBS establishes a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence Program in July 2007.