Maria Pitaro, MD
I am a primary care internist who has worked in a variety of settings – Homeless Health Care in Boston, Primary Care Resident education at the Residency Program in Social Medicine at Motefiore (1991 – 1995) and at Beth Israel in New York (1995 – 1999, including starting and running a Primary Care residency there), HIV Care, and a full-time private practice in internal medicine (1999 – 2002). I came to Union Health Center in 2002 as Associate Medical Director, where I led a team to re-design the care of patients with diabetes to improve clinical outcomes using the chronic care model. This project got us started in a long series of redesign and clinical improvement projects which resulted in the development of a team-based approach to care. We have focused on expanding the skills and training of medical assistants, some of whom become health coaches who work one-on-one with patients to better manage their chronic conditions using self-management support. I have worked to maximize use of the EMR for population-based chronic disease management and to develop the training curriculum for the health coaches that focuses on communication skills and promoting behavior change in addition to education about specific conditions. The concept of health literacy fits well with my career-long interest in how we effectively communicate with patients and work with them to promote healthy behavior, whether through working with a psychologist in collaborative patient care and resident education (which I did in my teaching capacity) or through developing care teams to help meet these goals.
Maria Pitaro, MD
Associate Medical Director
Union Health Center
I am a primary care internist who has worked in a variety of settings – Homeless Health Care in Boston, Primary Care Resident education at the Residency Program in Social Medicine at Motefiore (1991 – 1995) and at Beth Israel in New York (1995 – 1999, including starting and running a Primary Care residency there), HIV Care, and a full-time private practice in internal medicine (1999 – 2002). I came to Union Health Center in 2002 as Associate Medical Director, where I led a team to re-design the care of patients with diabetes to improve clinical outcomes using the chronic care model. This project got us started in a long series of redesign and clinical improvement projects which resulted in the development of a team-based approach to care. We have focused on expanding the skills and training of medical assistants, some of whom become health coaches who work one-on-one with patients to better manage their chronic conditions using self-management support. I have worked to maximize use of the EMR for population-based chronic disease management and to develop the training curriculum for the health coaches that focuses on communication skills and promoting behavior change in addition to education about specific conditions. The concept of health literacy fits well with my career-long interest in how we effectively communicate with patients and work with them to promote healthy behavior, whether through working with a psychologist in collaborative patient care and resident education (which I did in my teaching capacity) or through developing care teams to help meet these goals.
Maria Pitaro, MD
Associate Medical Director
Union Health Center
