2016-2017 Fellows
Jayson C. Carr, MD, FACP
Instructor in Medicine
Dr. Jayson Carr graduated from Brown University and Brown Medical School under the Air Force Health Professions Scholarship Program. He completed residency training at David Grant USAF Medical Center, California and UC Davis Medical Center. He spent 2 years on the medical staff and residency faculty at David Grant/UC Davis and completed his 7 years of active duty service at the 92nd Medical Group Fairchild AFB, WA. Returning to his native Rhode Island, he was site medical director for a community hospital practice, medical director at Care New England Wellness Center, and medical director at a rehab/skilled nursing facility while teaching medical students at his alma mater. He also served on the RI Medical Society’s Physician Review Committee.
Since joining Beth Israel Deaconess Healthcare, Brookline, Dr. Carr has served on the BIDCO Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee and BIDHC’s Physician Advisory Board. He has taught 3rd year HMS students in the core medicine clerkship for the past 8 years winning both the BIDHC Excellence in Teaching Award and The BIDMC Dept. of Medicine award for Excellence in Ambulatory Student Teaching in Primary Care Medicine.
In his Linde Family Fellowship project, Dr. Carr will design a program to reduce primary care physician use of high cost radiology in the evaluation of acute low back pain. He plans to collaborate with BIDCO and the BIDMC Spine Center to obtain baseline imaging rates, and design a program of education and incentives for primary care physicians to improve adherence to accepted guidelines. He hopes to use to project to investigate the larger topic of how to help physicians provide “high value care” in a way consistent not only with payer and organizational goals but also with “our professional ethic, in which our first duty is always to our patients.”
James Heckman, MD
Instructor in Medicine
Dr. James Heckman is a 2010 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Medicine and a 2013 graduate of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) Internal Medicine Residency Program. After completing his training he accepted a position as a full time clinician educator at Healthcare Associates at BIDMC. Since then he has faithfully served his patients while assuming several leadership positions within the practice. As South Suite Medical Team Leader, Dr. Heckman has propelled forward several projects aimed at improving patient care, including placing visual way finders to help patients navigate the suite and a bundled intervention to improve return rates of completed health care proxy forms. He has also fostered a culture of collaboration and communication that has been vital to practice improvement. As a Content Leader of the Physical Diagnosis Curriculum, Dr. Heckman co-designed a series of 90-minute evidence-based interactive workshops supported by interactive web-based algorithms and embedded short video clips demonstrating physical diagnosis maneuvers. These have been well received by house staff and are one focus of curriculum redesign within the residency program. Dr. Heckman is also a member of the BIDMC Academy of Medical Educators and the Arnold P Gold Foundation, Gold Humanism in Medicine Society.
Dr. Heckman’s Linde Project seeks to improve communication between primary care and specialty providers through the design and implementation of an electronic consultation system. Current literature estimates that an average PCP coordinates care with over 200 specialists in over 100 different practices. This is accomplished through an informal system of emails, phone calls and pages with obvious shortcomings in terms of accountability, standardization and reimbursement. Dr. Heckman hopes to build upon pre-existing relationships with specialist peers as he co-designs a system to address these issues while at the same time improving patient access to specialty care. His hope is that this new system will facilitate relationships between primary care practices and their specialist neighbors and strengthen the BIDMC network as a whole.
Julia Lindenberg, MD
Instructor in Medicine
Assistant Medical Director, Healthcare Associates (HCA)
Dr. Julia Lindenberg received her medical degree from Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and trained in primary care internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. During her last year of residency in 2006, she was awarded “Best Teaching Resident” at the Harvard Medical School graduation. Following residency, she joined the faculty at BIDMC as a primary care physician and clinician-educator at Healthcare Associates. Dr. Lindenberg has had a longstanding career interest in addiction and co-directed the Behavioral Medicine ambulatory course for the internal medicine residents from 2008-2012. In 2010, she became the Director of the Atrium Suite in HCA and in 2012, this role transitioned to her current role as Assistant Medical Director in Healthcare Associates. Dr. Lindenberg also co-chairs the HCA Narcotics Committee. She continues to actively teach residents and Harvard medical students.
During the Linde Family Fellowship, Julia will continue her work around addiction, and will be focused particularly in developing supports in HCA for patients with opioid addiction. The state of Massachusetts is in the middle of an epidemic of opioid overdose deaths that reflects nationwide trends. Working in conjunction with other hospital departments, particularly psychiatry, Julia will aim to develop HCA’s first office based opioid treatment program using buprenorphine, a medication approved to treat opioid dependence by licensed physicians. She will lead a small team of physicians as well as work with nursing and social work to coordinate this program and plans to integrate this clinic into the primary care residency training program in order to further the education of residents in HCA about the treatment of addiction. The hospital sees this program in HCA as a pilot as it works to also create a “bridge clinic” to treat inpatients with opioid addiction who are not patients at HCA.
Nicolas Nguyen, MD
Associate Professor in Family Medicine
Medical Director, BIDMC Family Medicine
Dr. Nic Nguyen graduated from Tufts School of Medicine and did his residency training at Cambridge Health Alliance, the first family medicine program situated at a Harvard affiliated hospital. Upon completion, he became a core faculty member at the Tufts Family Medicine residency program and was appointment Director of Inpatient Training. In 2013, he was named Medical Director of Beth Israel Deaconess Family Medicine at 1101 Beacon. He currently serves on the Future of Health Care and Vaccination Optimization Committees. At Harvard Medical School, he is a preceptor for the Foundations and Clerkship courses, and also serves as a principle clinical experience advisor. At the core however, “Dr. Nic” is a family doctor. With the exception of obstetrics, he practices full scope medicine for the whole family and believes in comprehensive and compassionate care.
During the Linde Fellowship, Dr. Nguyen will aim to create more cohesion amongst family medicine providers within the BI-APG network. These current 35 physicians (a growing number) practice at separate, isolated sites, yet under the same BI umbrella. There is increasing evidence on the benefits of creating stronger connections and cohesion between primary care physicians. In contrast, there is also data suggesting that isolation tends to increase burn out rates, reveal a lack of resources and education, and cause an absence of community and partnership amongst clinicians. The project will start with survey assessment of the level of connectivity, cohesion, and communications amongst APG family medicine providers practicing out in the community. Through creation of stronger communication forums, promotion of department wide meetings, and organization of networking opportunities, he hopes to form a much needed family medicine community at BIDMC-APG.
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