Who is Leonard Egede?
Leonard E. Egede, MD, MS, FACP is a Charles and Mary Bauer Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, and President and CEO of UBMD Internal Medicine (UBMDIM). What he teaches future physicians will impact the health of our entire community.
UBMDIM Primary and Specialty Care is comprised of 12 specialties — general internal medicine (adult primary care and hospital medicine); endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism; infectious diseases; allergy, immunology & rheumatology; gastroenterology, hepatology & nutrition; internal medicine & pediatrics; behavioral medicine; geriatrics & palliative medicine; nephrology; cardiovascular medicine; hematology & oncology; and pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. Leading the way are physicians who play a vital role in training medical students and resident physicians, and in researching and developing new treatments.
Dr. Egede is the former Chief of Medical College of Wisconsin’s division of internal medicine and director of its Center for Advancing Population Science. He says, “What got me excited about Buffalo was meeting many of its leaders. I was like, ‘Wow, this is a place where we can actually do something meaningful together.’”
Dr. Egede is currently focused on research regarding health disparities — the preventable differences in health between groups of people that are often linked to social, economic, and environmental disadvantages. They are differences that occur based on the number of people who get certain diseases; the severity of diseases; the number of people who die from a disease; and their access to health care, healthy food, and the latest medical treatments. Health disparities are often based on race or ethnicity, gender, education, income, disability, geographic location, sexual orientation, age, and religion.
Dr. Egede wants to grow primary and specialty care, and see UBMDIM further expand into communities needing the most care. He also wants to attract new leaders and division chiefs who bring new ideas and strategies for clinical care, education, and research. “We know that community environments affect health. We need to develop community programs that address social determinants of health, including affordable housing, increased access to healthy foods, models that provide monetary rewards for healthy choices, and health education classes and programs.”
In examining structures that have existed for years that have translated into policies, Dr. Egede is taking a close look at redlining, a discriminatory practice that denied financial services to neighborhoods with large minority populations. While redlining no longer exists, its effects linger, and include isolating people of color, along with lack of access to grocery stores and healthcare.
Regarding the future, Dr. Egede says, “I believe in holistic systems, where UBMDIM primary and specialty care are integrated and are accessible from the same location, and in which we collaborate with other health systems to avoid duplication of services.” A believer in strategic planning, he says, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you won’t get there. It’s not about me. It’s about building bridges, connecting and nurturing people, and creating opportunities.”
Learn more about Dr. Egede’s UBMDIM role at https://ubmdim.com/administration. Learn more about UBMD Internal Medicine, Primary and Specialty Care at https://ubmdim.com.