The IDWeek 2022 Closing Plenary, “Humanism Inspired by the Pandemic: Looking Towards the Future” was presented by both Taison D. Bell, MD, MBA, University of Virginia School of Medicine and Michelle Morse, MD, MPH, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Dr. Morse’s lecture, titled “Community and Connectivity with New Understanding” focuses on the unequal treatment and risks for recipients of the wealth redistribution and the mitigating effects that would be distributed across racial groups. Dr. Bell’s lecture, titled “Establishing our Infectious Diseases Commitment to Inclusivity: The Equity Lens.” focused on evolving the structure of academic medicine.
Dr. Taison Bell is an assistant professor of medicine in the divisions of Infectious Disease and Pulmonary/ Critical Care Medicine at the University of Virginia. He is also the vice chair for faculty development in the Department of Medicine and director of the UVA Summer Medical Leadership Program (a medical school preparatory program for underrepresented and disadvantaged students). Dr. Bell joined the faculty in 2017 after completing a critical care fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. Prior to that, he completed his internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital — where he was as chief resident — and an infectious diseases fellowship at Mass General Brigham. Dr. Bell is co-founder and chief medical officer of Owl Peak Labs, a biotechnology startup based in Charlottesville, Virginia, working to create innovative in-home colorectal cancer screening solutions.
Dr. Michelle Morse is the inaugural chief medical officer and deputy commissioner for the Center for Health Equity and Community Wellness at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where she leads the agency’s work in bridging public health and health care to reduce health inequities, guiding the center’s place-based and cross-cutting health equity programs, and serving as a key liaison to clinicians and clinical leaders across New York City.
Dr. Morse is an internal medicine and public health doctor who works to achieve health equity through global solidarity, social medicine and anti-racism education, and activism. She is a general internal medicine physician, part-time hospitalist at Kings County Hospital, co-founder of EqualHealth and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Morse’s continued commitment to advancing health equity and justice is informed by her experience in leadership roles as deputy chief medical officer of Partners In Heath, as a Soros Equality Fellow launching a global Campaign Against Racism, and as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow with the Ways and Means Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.
