National Award for James Pedulla, Medical Director of East Boston Elder Service Plan

East Boston, MA, October 28, 2013—The East Boston Neighborhood Health Center (EBNHC) is pleased and proud to share the news that James F. Pedulla, MD, Medical Director of the Elder Service Plan, was awarded the very first PACE Pioneer Award at the National PACE Conference on October 23, 2013. The Pioneer Award was created to recognize individuals who, through long service and extraordinary leadership, have contributed to the growth and development of the PACE Program as a national model of care for frail elders.

James Pedulla arrived at EBNHC in 1988, an auspicious time. Grants were available to fund all-inclusive care models for frail elders, just as EBNHC’s senior management and Board of Directors searched for a way to enhance the health center’s existing Home Care Program to care for its own frail, elderly, immigrant population more effectively. Based on the planning and development work of Dr. Pedulla and his colleagues, the East Boston Elder Service Plan launched its PACE Program in 1991. The first PACE Center Program was co-located with elderly housing, a model that the East Boston Elder Service Plan has worked to perfect and grow.

In 1992, Dr. Pedulla was appointed Senior Physician for the Elder Service Plan. In 1994, while overseeing East Boston’s PACE Program and assisting in the development of five additional replication sites in Massachusetts, he was named Medical Director for the East Boston Elder Service Plan. Twenty-five years a PACE pioneer, Dr. Pedulla has not only seen the East Boston PACE Program grow to include more than 400 participants, over 50% residing in supported housing, but has also inspired PACE Programs in Massachusetts and across the nation through his work with the Massachusetts PACE Medical Directors Forum and the NPACE Primary Care Committee.

Laura Wagner, Senior Vice President for Geriatric Services of EBNHC, was present at the National PACE Conference when Dr. Pedulla received his inaugural award. She says, “Those of us who live and work at the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, the East Boston Elder Service Plan, the five other Massachusetts PACE Programs, and the Massachusetts Medicaid Office of Long-Term Care Services and Supports, have long known Dr. Pedulla as a pioneer of the PACE model of care. In his 25 years of work with the East Boston Elder Service Plan and the National PACE Association Primary Care Committee, Dr. Pedulla has also pioneered work in health outcome measurement and the use of an electronic medical record to document and monitor the care of PACE participants, whether that care is provided in our PACE clinics and day programs, at home, or in the hospital or nursing home. We are thrilled and honored that his 25 years of extraordinary leadership have been recognized by the National PACE Association in its very first PACE Pioneer Award.”

The East Boston Neighborhood Health Center has been a vital part of the community for more than 40 years, providing easily accessible, high-quality health care to all who live and work in East Boston and the surrounding communities of Chelsea, Revere, Everett, and Winthrop. EBNHC handles 300,000 patient visits per year—more than any other ambulatory care center in New England.