Annual Leadership Award
2004 Recipient
John E. Wennberg, MD, MPH
Dr. Jack Wennberg is the Peggy Y. Thomson Chair of the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Services at Dartmouth Medical School. Dr. Wennberg has a long history with Maine starting in the early 1970’s when he worked with Dan Hanley, John Putnam, and David Soule to establish a statewide hospital discharge database. Jack was among the first to develop population-based research of healthcare utilization, noting significant variations in physician practice patterns in Maine. This work led to three articles on small area variation published in 1976 in the Journal of the Maine Medical Association under the guidance of its editor, Daniel Hanley, MD. This seminal work was the springboard for Dan’s formation of the Maine Medical Assessment Program. Dr. Wennberg’s early work and Dan’s ability to act on this work helped to establish the reputation of Maine physicians nationally. Dr. Wennberg is renowned for his work on geographic variations of healthcare delivery and has published numerous articles in the world’s best medical journals. Jack Wennberg truly exemplifies the qualities so admired in Dan Hanley: collaboration and inclusion, courage, hard work, innovation, kindness, and leadership.