FACULTY PROMOTIONS

Evan Benjamin, MD
Promoted to Associate Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine
Dr. Benjamin, MD is the Vice President of Baystate's Healthcare Quality for Baystate Health System. His research interests lie in the fields of patient safety and quality improvement, and he currently serves on a number of advisory panels and national committees.

Dr. Benjamin is board certified in internal medicine and geriatric medicine.

Thomas L. Higgins, MD, MBA
Promoted to Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine
In 1996, Dr. Higgins joined Baystate Medical Center as the Director of the Adult Critical Care Division. Previously, he was the Director of Outcomes Research in the Department of Cardiothoracic Anesthesia at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and has been the North American editor for Clinical Intensive Care since 1994.

Dr. Higgins is board certified in internal medicine and anesthesiology. He is currently working on an NIH grant relating to genetic predispostion to severe sepsis.

J. Enrique Silva, MD
Appointed Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine
Dr. Silva joined Baystate Medical Center as Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism in September 2005. He is also Adjunct Professor of Biology at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Previously, he was Chief of Endocrinology at the Jewish General Hospital, and Professor of Medicine and Physiology at McGill University, both in Montreal. Dr. Silva is board certified in internal medicine and in endocrinology.

Dr. Silva has has numerous publications on thyroid hormone physiology and disease and is on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Thyroid. He is currently studying the role of thyroid hormone on thermogenesis and energy balance at his research lab at the Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute.

Garry W. Welch, PhD
Promoted to Research Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine
Dr. Welch is the Director of Behavioral Medicine Research at Baystate Medical Center.

Previously, Dr. Welch held positions at the Behavioral and Mental Health Section of the Research Division at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, the Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry, the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, and the University of Sydney, Australia.

Dr. Welch is currently involved in an NIH grant-funded research project to develop clinical-behavioral decision support tools involving motivational interviewing.
(Welch Receives NIH Grant to Use Information Technology to Manage Chronic Diseases Academics@Baystate July 2006.)