Russ Phillips, MD
Russell S. Phillips is the Director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care and the William Applebaum Professor of Medicine and Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Phillips is a general internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he provides primary care in Healthcare Associates, a large interprofessional teaching practice. He has been a leader in innovation in practice and payment evaluation in primary care, implementing new care models for patients with chronic illness and, using micro-simulation, evaluating the revenues available to support innovations in care and the level of patient coverage required for global payment to lead to changes in practice that enhance value. Phillips and his colleagues have also evaluated the effect of increased primary care payment in Rhode Island on total medical costs and quality. He as also been a coauthor on studies that demonstrated the relation between the availability of primary care physicians at the county level and life expectancy, and the impact of increasing the number of primary care physicians in shortage areas on life expectancy in those areas. He has served on a Massachusetts Health Quality Partners Advisory Group on the future of primary care and nationally, is a member of the Primary Care Centers Round Table, representing the HMS Center for Primary. In Massachusetts and nationally, he is an advocate for improved access to primary care, and primary care innovation supported by global payment for primary care. Phillips is a member of the Initiative to Integrate Oral Health Care and Medicine, and a co-leader of the Center for the Integration of Primary Care and Oral Health (CIPCOH), an effort led by the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, UMass Medical School, and the Center for Primary Care at HMS. He also served on a Primary Care Collaborative Advisory Committee on Oral Health Integration. Phillips is currently Co-Principal Investigator on an AHRQ R 18 designed to address follow-up of referrals, test orders, and symptoms in primary care, and is an investigator on a HRSA grant led by David Duong, MD designed to support practices in rural areas through virtual case management conferences, and process improvement (Project Echo-Plus).
In Phillips' prior work at BIDMC, which included serving as Chief of the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care for a decade, he led a task force to improve transitions in care, a working group to develop new sustainable practice models for primary care, and a task force to develop strategies for care management for high-risk patients. At the state level, he served on the Massachusetts Coordinating Council on the Patient-Centered Medical Home. Phillips has championed palliative care services in primary care, wellness programs, and innovations to improve the quality of life for patients with chronic illness.
A graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University School of Medicine, Phillips has held leadership roles in the Society of General Internal Medicine, serving as Chairperson of the Research Committee, and as President of the Association of Chiefs and Leaders in General Internal Medicine.
With more than 300 publications and an H-index of 117 (meaning that 117 of his publications have more that 117 citations), his publications have resulted in more than 45,000 citations in the published literature. Phillips' research has spanned disparities in care, screening for infection in office practice, patient safety, end of life care, and interventions to improve care for patients with chronic disease. He is the recipient of the two prestigious awards for mentorship at HMS; the Barger Award and the William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award. He led the Harvard General Medicine Fellowship Program for nearly 15 years, and the Harvard Research Fellowship Program in Integrative Medical Therapies for 12 years. He held a Mid-Career Mentorship Award (K24) from the NIH to support his mentoring activities. Phillips has mentored more than 50 trainees, most of whom have gone on to successful careers as investigators and leaders in general medicine and in family medicine. His research has received support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Hartford Foundation, and the Macy Foundation.
In his role as HMS Center for Primary Care Director, he has authored more than 50 research studies, reviews, perspectives, and chapters with a focus on the use of learning collaboratives to transform primary care, the value of primary care, and the impact of changes in primary care practice and payment on the finances of primary care practice. For his work leading primary care at HMS, he has been recognized by the Barbara McNeil Faculty Award for Exceptional Service to Harvard Medical School.