BeWell Celebrates 20
Years of ‘Family’ Health

Right: BeWell’s Funky Groovers (l-r) April Shadrick, Kelly Brice and Olga Volfson-Morgovsky

In 1985, in a single exercise room in the Judge Baker Center (behind what is now BIDMC’s Stoneman parking area), one exercise class and a few health education offerings marked the beginning of a new employee health promotion program. Exercisers wanting a higher-level workout could carry their “steps” for step class up four flights of non-air-conditioned stairs to a small gymnasium.

From these humble beginnings emerged today’s BeWell Tanger Center for Health Management, an employee and patient health program that celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2005. Current members exercise and learn about health primarily in the BeWell facility in the garden level of the Carl J. Shapiro Clinical Center. This 5,000-sq.ft. fitness center has a full complement of modern exercise equipment, a group exercise room, classes ranging from yoga to “funky groove”, a library, a wide range of health programs, locker rooms, showers and towel services — even air-conditioning.

Tom Delbanco, M.D., BeWell’s long-time medical director, notes that the center’s importance moves well beyond its facilities. “We need to focus on long-term health and well-being for all people, not just the fittest of the fit,” he says. “People who are overweight, those recovering from surgery or an injury, exercisers with gray hair or others who don’t fit the ‘health club’ stereotype are all welcome. The staff is highly professional and eager to provide personal attention.”

The almost 750 members are mostly BIDMC staff (98 percent), but other Longwood area staff are welcome, as well as patients (particularly in the west campus BeWell facility on Brookline Avenue) and community members.

As it marks its 20th anniversary, BeWell has evolved into a multidisciplinary program with a modern mission, according to Director Dan Rooks, Ph.D. “BeWell is an important part of the medical center in that we work to keep our ‘family’ healthy,” says Rooks, “but we are also in a unique position to serve physicians and their patients and to conduct research.”

Left: Debra Walk’s true colors shine through at BeWell.

The west campus facility of BeWell has gone through many changes, but was completely refurbished recently to create a unique exercise facility for patients with chronic health concerns. The first patient programs introduced over the past two years translated research findings into clinical practice. Healthy Weight Self-Management, developed in conjunction with the division of bariatric surgery, offers science-based, non-medication weight loss and management. The program was modeled after research on pre-operative exercise for total joint replacement patients and the use of exercise and education to manage fibromyalgia. Other programs include LiveWell, personalized exercise prescriptions used by physicians and other clinicians to help patients start and maintain an exercise program, and Functional Recovery for injured workers.

The east campus BeWell facility remains the hub of activity for BIDMC staff. BeWell devotees like Kris Laping, senior vice president of development, and members of her staff enjoy the mental, as well as physical, health benefits the group classes provide. “We go. We laugh. We feel re-energized,” says Laping. “It’s a great way to bond, clear our heads and manage stress.”


A BeWell History Lesson
BeWell was introduced in 1985 after internist Tom Delbanco, M.D., visited New Jersey-based Johnson and Johnson to learn about its groundbreaking employee health program called Live for Life. Delbanco and others brought Live for Life to Beth Israel Hospital, which became one of the first hospitals nationwide, and the first in Boston, to adopt such a program. By the time the exercise facilities moved to their current space in 1996, Beth Israel had separated from the Live for Life program. Mitchell Rabkin, M.D., then CEO and president, gave the reorganized program its name BeWell, a greeting he and others used to emphasize the mission of improved health. Also an integral part was New England Deaconess Hospital's Pro Health, a program on employee safety and wellness.

Right: Art Mercurio stretches on the mats.

In 1995, supporters Al and Brenda Tanger and their son, Woody, demonstrated their commitment to BeWell’s philosophy with gifts of $1.25 million to establish facilities on both campuses. Recently, the Tanger family has shown their continued commitment to the center’s progress with additional gifts totaling $1 million.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE GREAT IMAGES FROM THE RECENT BEWELL AD CAMPAIGN.

- Cindy Whitcome