Office of the Chief Medical Officer

Our Mission

The mission of the Office of the Chief Medical Officer (OCMO) is to lead and support our expert faculty and staff in order to deliver the highest quality of care aligned with Brigham and Women’s Hospital ongoing efforts towards a culture of inclusion and belonging.

The Office of the Chief Medical Officer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital provides leadership and integration, linking all aspects of care delivery areas in ambulatory, in/outpatient services, and care continuum.

The OCMO consists of the following departments:

Our Leadership Team

Charles Morris, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer

Chuck Morris

Charles A. Morris, MD, MPH, is the Chief Medical Officer at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Morris has served as the program director for the Division of General Medicine Primary Care Residency and as the Associate Medical Director of Primary Care, both in the Department of Medicine.

He has practiced primary care and hospital-based medicine at BWH and has been the Medical Director for Brigham Circle Medical Associates. Morris has led several quality improvement and population health initiatives. He directly oversaw the creation of and operations for an ambulatory population management program that advanced quality of care for several thousand BWH patients with chronic disease. He has held several important leadership positions and is an active teacher of clinical medicine in the ambulatory clinics and inpatient wards.

He is a graduate of Princeton University and Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, after which he completed a residency in Internal Medicine at BWH, where he also served as chief medical resident. He obtained his Masters in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. He joined the faculty at BWH in 2002, and is an assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Scott Lewis Schissel, MD, PhD, Associate Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Medical Affairs for Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital

Scott Lewis Schissel

Dr. Scott Lewis Schissel is the Associate Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Medical Affairs for Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital (BWFH) and a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). He is also a part-time instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School.

He received his medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He then completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at BWH. He is board certified in critical care medicine, internal medicine and pulmonary disease.

Dr. Schissel’s clinical research examines a wide variety of pulmonary diseases and abnormalities, including lung fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension and dyspnea. He has authored over 20 peer-reviewed publications, has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, and has been named to the annual list of the Best Doctors in America.

Sonali Desai, MD, Associate Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Quality for Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Sonali DesaiDr. Sonali Desai is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a practicing rheumatologist. She serves as Vice President of Quality/Associate Chief Medical Officer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Desai has worked at the Brigham for 17 years and within the Department of Quality and Safety (DQS) for a decade. Dr. Desai conducts research on improving the quality of care and patient safety with a focus on the ambulatory setting, with over 40 peer-reviewed publications. Her work has lead to her receiving the Donabedian Award in Quality & Safety in 2019 from the American Public Health Association for Ambulatory Safety Nets and Diagnostic Error Reduction.

Dr. Desai has led a variety of novel and innovative safety programs using artificial intelligence and electronic medical records that have been scaled across the hospital, our Mass General Brigham system and the Greater Boston region. She has also taught internationally in quality and safety and was a founding program director at HMS for the Safety, Quality Informatics and Leadership program.

She is a native of Massachusetts and attended both college and medical school at Brown University in Rhode Island. She completed her internal medicine residency and Chief residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, her rheumatology fellowship at BWH, and her Master’s in Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

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