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44 Robert WoodJohnson
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s clinician, educator, and admin-
istrator, Dr. Vinci has spent his
entire academic career at BUSM and
BMC (formerly Boston City Hospital).
His roles have spanned resident, chief
resident, chief of the Emergency
Department, program director for res-
idency training, and vice chair and
now chair of the Department of
Pediatrics. "It doesn't feel like work,"
says Dr. Vinci. "I love being part of an
educational institution."
Boston Medical Center states its mis-
sion simply: "Exceptional Care without
Exception." It is a mission that Dr.
Vinci shares. "Boston City Hospital
was founded 150 years ago as a
municipal institution with a special
mission to care for the underserved,"
he says. "I love that concept. The com-
munity has grown and changed, and
the hospital has changed along with it,
but the challenges are much the same,
and its commitment to patients is as
strong as ever."
Much of the hospital's work has
involved caring for the working poor
and successive waves of immigrants,
says Dr. Vinci. "Many variables con-
tribute to their challenges in accessing
health care--including language, liter-
acy, housing, and education. All of the
underserved have one or more of these
issues."
Stephen I. Pelton, MD, professor of
pediatrics and chief, pediatric infec-
tious diseases, BMC, is a longtime col-
league, who interviewed Dr. Vinci for
an internship in 1980. "Bob has taken
on the challenge of guiding an urban
department of pediatrics to meet the
needs of today's medicine," he says.
"We provide care for an underserved,
predominantly minority community
that requires education and wrap-
around services to meet the needs of
their children's health issues. He has
expanded the services we offer to
include a larger focus on food allergy
and on palliative medicine for children.
And he has begun a project that will in-
tegrate mental health services into pri-
mary care, a service that will be critical
for improving outcomes, such as school
achievement, in our community."
Building Collaboration
and Achieving Change
P
atricia Whitley-Williams, MD, pro-
fessor and chair, Department of
Pediatrics, Robert Wood Johnson
Medical School, was a fellow at
Boston City Hospital when Dr. Vinci
was a young resident. "He stood out in
the program," she recalls. "He was
intellectually curious, an excellent doc-
tor, and collaborative--a team player."
obert J. Vinci, MD '80, is the Joel and Barbara
Alpert Professor of Pediatrics and chair,
Department of Pediatrics, at Boston University School of
Medicine (BUSM). At Boston Medical Center (BMC), the med-
ical school's primary teaching affiliate, Dr. Vinci is chief, De-
partment of Pediatrics, and serves as program director of the
Boston Combined Residency Program in Pediatrics.
R
Robert J. Vinci, MD '80:
"Exceptional Care without Exception"
B Y K A T E O ' N E I L L