FINAL 2024 Tribute Journal - Flipbook - Page 15
Guest Speaker
JOSEPH R. BETANCOURT, MD
Joseph R. Betancourt, MD, MPH, is the president
of The Commonwealth Fund. One of the nation’s
preeminent leaders in health care policy, equity,
quality, and community health, Dr. Betancourt
formerly served as the senior vice president for Equity
and Community Health at Massachusetts General
Hospital and as founding director of the Disparities
Solutions Center. He has devoted his career to
improving the quality and value of health care for diverse populations.
Dr. Betancourt has served on committees that have provided advice to all
agencies within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and
the Health Resources and Services Administration, among others. He has also
provided guidance to private industry, and at the state and local level, including
a term on the Boston Board of Health. His roles in governance have included
serving on the board of Trinity Health, Neighborhood Health Plan, and the
Massachusetts Health and Hospitals Association.
Dr. Betancourt is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School
and a board-certified internist, providing primary care to a large Spanish-speaking
and minority patient panel. He earned his medical degree from the University
of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and completed an internal medicine
residency at New York Hospital–Cornell Medical Center. Following his residency,
he was a member of one of the first classes in The Commonwealth Fund–Harvard
University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy, where he earned an MPH in health
policy and management from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
An author of nearly 80 peer-reviewed articles, Dr. Betancourt has served
on several Institute of Medicine committees, including the committee that
produced the seminal report Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial/Ethnic
Disparities in Health Care.
Dr. Betancourt is an Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow and recipient
of the Sumner M. Redstone Endowed Chair in Health Equity at Massachusetts
General Hospital. In 2022, he was named one of Modern Healthcare’s “Top
25 Diversity Leaders,” and in 2023 as one of the “Top 50 Clinical Healthcare
Executives in the United States.” Also in 2023, he was elected a member of
the National Academy of Medicine.
