“I’m deeply honored to be joining one of the world’s most influential medical journals,” says Williams, who has worked at Mass General since 1990. Williams, who treats patients with kidney disease, end-stage renal disease and those undergoing kidney, liver, heart and lung transplants, is also an active clinical investigator, perhaps best known for research that led to a new national kidney allocation rule in 2015 that increased minority patient access to kidney transplants. A native of Louisiana, he received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Harvard and his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and clinical and research fellowships in nephrology there.
Williams will not only assess and shepherd manuscripts that relate to his areas of focus but will also help shape the journal’s content overall and drive crucial discussions pertaining to medicine and health policy. “In this role you write a fair number of thought pieces,” he says. “You have an important voice in influencing thought about new discoveries in medicine and their applications in medical therapeutics and health policy, not just in the United States but worldwide.”
Williams, who became the first African American member of the faculty of medicine at Mass General in 1990 and founded the hospital’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion in 1991, will also have a voice in addressing issues of social justice in medicine. “I look forward to advancing the journal’s mission to grapple with the public health crisis of racial disparities in health care,” he says.
Established more than 200 years ago by Mass General cofounders John Collins Warren and James Jackson, NEJM is the oldest continuously published medical journal in the world. “Joining the journal now is even more exciting than it might have been 10 years ago,” says Williams. “Medicine is moving quickly. Developments in precision and personalized medicine are breaking ground in ways we hadn’t anticipated a decade ago. It will be an honor to bring these stories to the medical profession and, ultimately, the public.”
When Boston began to take COVID-19 pandemic precautions last year, the Boston Lyric Opera had just opened a production of Bellini’s Norma. Artistic director Esther Nelson turned to a longtime friend of the organization to help them determine whether the season could go on.
Merle Adelson and Paul Freedman had planned to marry on Friday, January 22, 2021. But instead, their nuptials took place on January 11, in a Jewish ceremony inside one of Mass General’s intensive care units.
Employees were invited to celebrate the virtual launch of Black Excellence @ Mass General Brigham. The group provides a new affirming space for Black employees to create a community of support to encourage the welcoming, success, and advancement of Black employees at Mass General Brigham.
In January, Mass General staff had the opportunity to take part in three virtual celebrations to honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and illuminate his goals of racial equity and justice.
David Brown, MD, chief of the Mass General Department of Emergency Medicine, first arrived at Mass General in 1989 as an intern and has remained here ever since. Soon, Brown will wear another hat, as he takes on the role of interim president and CEO of Cooley Dickinson Hospital.
Even a looming snowstorm couldn’t dampen the spirits of staff volunteering and patients lining up during the first day of the Mass General COVID-19 public vaccination clinic.