Dr. Thomas Lee, MD ’79, chief medical officer of Press Ganey Associates Inc. and a member of the Weill Cornell Medicine Board of Overseers, has been awarded the Weill Cornell Medicine Alumni Association Award of Distinction.
Established in 1949, the accolade is presented annually in recognition of a Weill Cornell Medical College alumnus who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in research, education or patient care, and has brought acclaim to the institution.
“My time at Weill Cornell was a very important, formative period for me, and it ultimately laid the foundation for the expertise that I bring to healthcare,” Dr. Lee said. “To be appreciated by my colleagues there means a lot.”
Devoting much of his career to investigating and solving health policy issues, Dr. Lee has written more than 260 academic articles and three books, in addition to serving on the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine. At Press Ganey he develops strategies aimed to help providers nationwide improve the patient experience and the value of care.
After receiving his medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College, Dr. Lee earned his Master’s degree in epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He has remained in the Boston area throughout his career, and currently holds professorship positions in medicine at Harvard Medical School and in health policy and management at the Harvard Chan School.
He also serves as an internist and cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The hospital annually honors an outstanding primary care physician with the Dr. Thomas H. Lee Award for Excellence in Primary Care. Dr. Lee said this namesake award is a reflection of the education he received at Weill Cornell Medical College.
“I wouldn’t be as effective in any of these roles if I hadn’t received the training on how to be an excellent doctor at Weill Cornell,” said Dr. Lee, who cited Dr. Lewis Drusin, a professor of clinical healthcare policy and research at Weill Cornell Medicine, as an instrumental mentor, pushing him to be both an outstanding clinical physician and investigator.
Dr. Lee received the award May 30 at the 2018 Alumni Award of Distinction dinner.