Kerri Palamara, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She completed her medical degree at New York Medical College and Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital, and now practices as a primary care general internist at MGH. After 8 years as an Associate Program Director and Primary Care Program Director at MGH, Dr. Palamara was asked to lead the Center for Physician Well-being for the Department of Medicine at MGH as the inaugural director.

Her academic work focuses on physician coaching, clinician well-being, and faculty development. Dr. Palamara leads the American College of Physicians “Physician Coach Training Program”, which focuses on training physicians to integrate coaching techniques into their quality improvement and well-being initiatives. For her work, Dr. Palamara has won teaching awards at MGH, Partners Healthcare, Harvard Medical School, MassGeneral Brigham, the Society of General Internal Medicine, and the American College of Physicians; and has been awarded Mastership in the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Palamara created and directs the Physician Coaching Program for trainees at MGH. This program was designed in conjunction with the Institute of Coaching at Harvard Medical School to improve physician awareness of their growth and development, reduce burnout, and improve their resilience. This coaching program has been recognized by Harvard Medical School for the Culture of Excellence in Mentoring Award, based on the organizational change inspired by this program, and was featured by the AAMC as a model program to reduce resident burnout. Dr. Palamara also directs faculty physician coaching programs at MGH and is currently involved in several randomized controlled trials locally and nationally on the impact of coaching for coachees and their coaches. The MGH Physician Coaching Program has expanded nationally to over 40 residency and fellowship programs and Dr. Palamara is actively involved in onboarding, evaluating and sustaining these programs. Dr. Palamara has developed and run faculty development workshops nationally on this topic and contributes to the dialogue on physician well-being nationally as a member of CHARM (Collaboration for Healing and Renewal in Medicine).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Palamara was a leader in several aspects of Massachusetts General Hospital’s response, including the hospital’s response for staff well-being and clinically as co-director of MGH’s first Respiratory Illness Clinic and co-medical director of the Boston Hope field hospital at the Boston Convention & Expo Center.