About OpenNotes

OpenNotes Leadership Bios

Catherine (Cait) DesRoches, DrPH

Executive Director (LinkedIn)

Catherine (Cait) is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a health policy and data nerd with expertise in emerging trends in health care delivery. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts, School of Public Health, and the Joseph P. Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University where she received her doctoral degree, Cait has also held research and faculty positions at Mathematica Policy Research, Simmons College School of Social Work, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Tom Delbanco, MD

Co-Founder, OpenNotes

Tom Delbanco, MD, is the John F. Keane & Family Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). Educated at Harvard College and the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr Delbanco trained in internal medicine at Bellevue, Harlem, and Presbyterian Hospitals in New York. Following military service, he came to Boston where, until 2002, he was Chief of the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a unit he founded and led for more than 30 years. At the former Beth Israel Hospital, Dr Delbanco created one of the first primary care practice and teaching programs at an academic health center, and in 1979 he developed and led the Harvard Medical School Faculty Development and Fellowship Program that has now prepared more than 300 general internists for academic careers.

Janice Walker, RN, MBA

Co-Founder, OpenNotes

Jan Walker, RN, MBA, is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the research faculty in the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Her primary research interests are in patients’ perspective on care, the use of information technologies to improve their experience, and strategies to reorganize and improve primary care practice.

Sigall K. Bell, MD

Director, Patient Safety & Discovery

As Director of Patient Safety and Discovery at OpenNotes at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and co-Director of Research at the national Collaborative for Accountability and Improvement, Dr. Bell’s work concentrates on patient engagement, diagnostic safety, and equity. Her research on open notes is recognized as a “transforming concept” in patient safety and has been cited by the National Academies of Medicine, the National Quality Forum telemedicine diagnostic measures development, and the IHI National Action Plan.