Recipients recognized for their efforts to improve care and alleviate suffering during pandemic
UMass Medical School faculty John Broach, MD, MPH; Michael Hirsh, MD; and Jill Terrien, PhD, were recognized as Champions of Humanistic Care by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. Honorees were selected by their member health care institutions for compassion and courage during the COVID-19 pandemic and recognized at the Annual Gala of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation held virtually on June 10.
Dr. Broach, assistant professor of emergency medicine and director of the Division of Disaster Medicine in the Department of Emergency Medicine, was tapped to serve as medical director for the DCU Center Field Hospital. The field hospital cared for 161 patients during the initial coronavirus surge last spring, closed for months, then reopened in December 2020 as cases again rose in Worcester. Broach’s leadership and collaboration with health care trainees and providers further helped maintain care levels for non-COVID-19 hospital inpatients.
Dr. Hirsh, professor of surgery and pediatrics and assistant vice provost for wellness and health promotion at UMass Medical School, has overseen the region’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as medical director for the Worcester Division of Public Health. In this role, he oversees all aspects of local infection control policy including decisions regarding school closures, health care worker regulations and COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Humanism is central to all he does, including as a pediatric trauma surgeon and nationally known advocate for gun control.
Dr. Terrien, associate professor of nursing and medicine and associate dean of interprofessional and community partnerships for the Graduate School of Nursing, deployed Graduate School of Nursing students to train School of Medicine students to give injections and to staff public flu shot clinics. When the pandemic hit, she and 13 GSN students were at the ready to train 150 School of Medicine students as members of the UMMS-initiated Vaccine Corps to inoculate Worcester-area residents against COVID-19 at community-based sites throughout the city.
Broach, Hirsh and, Terrien, with fellow Champions of Humanistic Health Care were in the company of three national health care leaders who received the Gold Foundation’s 2021 National Humanism in Medicine Medal: Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Wayne Riley, MD, MPH, MBA, president of the State University of New York Downstate Health Sciences University; and Eric Topol, MD, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute.
Dr. Fauci accepted his medal on behalf of all health care professionals who have cared with such compassion and courage in the COVID-19 pandemic.