Magee appointed Worcester DPH commissioner
UMass Medical School faculty member and UMass Memorial Health Care community physician B. Dale Magee, MD, MS, has been named the new commissioner of the Worcester Department of Public Health. His appointment by City Manager Michael O’Brien continues the longstanding collaboration between the integrated academic health sciences center and the DPH, with Dr. Magee assuming the position from retiring commissioner Leonard Morse, MD, also a UMMS faculty member.
Magee, clinical assistant professor of obstetrics & gynecology, is a respected obstetrician/gynecologist who has been practicing in his hometown of Shrewsbury for more than 30 years. His new role follows many years of community involvement, including service as president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, participation on the Worcester Infant Mortality Task Force as a member and past chair, and service on the Shrewsbury School Committee.
“I can’t wait to get going,” said Magee who, in addition to his medical credentials, has extensive training and experience in public health analysis and policy. “There is more to improving health than providing health care—there are many things we can do better or more efficiently using a public health approach.”
A native of Niagara Falls, N.Y., Magee earned his medical degree at the State University of New York Upstate Medical Center, completed his residency at Case Western Reserve and earned a master’s in health policy and quality measurement at Dartmouth Medical School’s Center for Evaluative Clinical Sciences. In addition to his clinical faculty role, Magee has served as a consultant to the Center for Health Policy Research at Commonwealth Medicine, UMass Medical School’s public health consulting division. He also serves on the state’s Expert Panel on Performance Measurement for the Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council, and the Birth Defects Registry Advisory at the state DPH.
In a Jan. 10 article in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, the city manager said he was impressed with Magee’s detailed reporting and his ability to analyze data during his tenure on the Worcester Public Health Task Force. In addition to Magee, seven UMMS faculty and administrators, including Chancellor Michael F. Collins, were part of the 22-member task force that was convened by the DPH in 2009 to address dramatic budget cuts. The task force was instrumental in developing a focused mission based on national best practices and a sustainable financial model.
As he gets set to begin his new job on Jan. 19, Magee is passionate about improving health and brimming with ideas, especially about ways the DPH can impact Worcester’s sharply rising obesity rate. “We need to look for the causes of disease upstream of the typical medical approaches, such as environment and diet, to do right by the people we serve,” he said. “A huge part of what I will be doing is drawing people’s attention to the issues, and finding the right people and projects to address them. I’m very grateful for the people at the Medical School, Commonwealth Medicine and UMass Memorial for their good will, idealism and hard work.”
