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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Dr. Donald Berwick is to be honored May 30 at a Cambridge Health Alliance fundraiser.

Cambridge Health Alliance is having a busy May, launching a phone-in Doctor Finder Service, holding a free Thursday workshop to teach people to “Nurture Yourself with Natural Products” and, on May 30, honoring national health care leader Donald M. Berwick with its Art of Healing Award.

The award, to be presented at the alliance’s annual fundraising event, celebrates “visionary men and women who transcend boundaries, joyfully embrace humanity and profoundly inspire the healing of body and spirit,” according to alliance PR, and Berwick is well qualified as — among other things — former president and chief executive of the Cambridge-based Institute for Healthcare Improvement, an organization he co-founded and led for over 20 years. In July 2010, President Barack Obama appointed Berwick as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a position he held until December.

Before that, Berwick, a pediatrician, served on the staffs of Children’s Hospital Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. The alliance is a Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate and has long worked with IHI and Berwick, who served as consultant and coach.

“Dr. Berwick’s passion for patient-centered care and quality improvement inspires our work,” said Patrick Wardell, the alliance’s chief executive. “His influence is deeply felt as we strive to treat each patient as an individual person, not as a disease or series of conditions, and we are honored to celebrate his tireless efforts to transform the delivery of health care nationwide.”

The fifth annual Art of Healing Award Dinner — expected to raise more than $350,000 — is to be held at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Grand Ballroom in Boston. Sacha Pfeiffer, host of NPR affiliate WBUR’s “All Things Considered,” is set to served as master of ceremonies.

For information, including ticketing and sponsorship details, visit challiance.org/aoh or call (617) 591-4080.

The Doctor Finder Service line

By dialing the Doctor Finder Service line at (617) 665-1305, callers will be connected to a call center equipped to make appointments and help patients find a care provide at any of the alliance’s 15 locations throughout Cambridge, Somerville and Boston’s metro-north communities. The line is designed to limit hold times and misdirected calls, and Doctor Finder Service staff speak Portuguese and Spanish and have access to over 100 languages on request.

“Nurture” workshop in cancer crisis

“Nurture Yourself with Natural Products” is intended mainly for cancer patients, survivors, family members, and caregivers. It’s to be led by Jennifer Angell, a horticultural therapist at the Virginia Thurston Healing Garden in Harvard, Mass. Angell said she can teach how lavender, chamomile and ginger can be used to relieve stress and physical discomforts; provides samples of organic teas to explore healing benefits; and make sachets, dryer bags and satin eye pillows filled with lavender and chamomile flowers, flax seed and essential oils. The event, which runs from 2 to 4 p.m., will take place at the alliance’s Cambridge Hospital campus in the Learning Center, 1493 Cambridge St. For information, call (617) 665-2054 or send e-mail to [email protected].

This post was written from press releases.