Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC)

Although the Trump administration ensured that its freeze of federal funding to Harvard University would not impact the university’s hospital affiliates, BIDMC and other Boston hospitals claimed they would lose funding from National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants. ^{5  6}

Background

With its history rooted in the original New England Deaconess Hospital (NEDH) system opened in 1896, the Beth Israel Hospital (BIH) first became an official entity in 1916. It was founded by a group of Jewish doctors and nurses. The full Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), as it exists today, was the result of the Beth Israel Hospital and New England Deaconess Hospital merger in 1996. Throughout its history, BIDMC has been committed to teaching aspiring medical students and physicians. Its partnership with Harvard Medical School first began in 1928. ⁷

Activities

Medical Specialties and Rankings

The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) provides specialty medical care across several specific areas, including in cardiovascular care, cancer, neuroscience, orthopedics, and organ transplantation. ¹ It is also a nationally ranked hospital across several areas. According to the U.S. News & World Report in 2025, BIDMC ranks among the top 50 hospitals in the country in nine specialties: Cancer (22nd), Diabetes & Endocrinology (21st), Ear Nose & Throat (49th), Gastroenterology & GI Surgery (21st), Geriatrics (34th), Heart & Vascular (39th), Neurology & Neurosurgery (47th), Obstetrics & Gynecology (15th), and Pulmonology & Lung Surgery (25th). Evaluators rated 19 of BIMDC’s specialties, procedures and conditions as “High Performing,” and BIDMC was ranked the 3rd overall best hospital in the state of Massachusetts. ¹

Advocacy

The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has been involved in left-of-center political advocacy in the health-care field. In 2023, BIDMC published a report arguing that abortion restrictions are linked to an increase in children entering the foster care system, particularly among Black and other racial-minority children. In the report, BIDMC argued against the United States Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) that overturned a federal right to abortion. ² BIDMC operates what it calls a “Family Planning Clinic,” through which it advocates greater abortion access and performs abortions. ⁸

In August 2024, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts ruled in favor of a woman after she was fired by Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital after refusing the COVID-19 vaccine over her religious beliefs and pro-life views. The woman, Amanda Bizanet, had cited her Christian faith as her reason for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, which she claimed used fetal cell lines from aborted fetuses. The hospital fired her for her refusal of the vaccine. ⁹

In January 2025, BIDMC residents and fellows voted to unionize. Some 83 percent of its members voted in favor of the unionization effort, resulting in BIDMC junior doctors becoming a member of the Service Employees International Union Committee of Interns and Residents. In a press release following the vote, union organizers stated that the intent behind unionization was to “gain a seat at the table to advocate for themselves and their patients, especially immigrant and refugee patients, and other folks coming from working-class communities of color who often face the highest barriers to care.” ¹⁰

In February 2025, the Capital Research Center published a report on Biden administration grants that funded left-wing medical research. The report revealed that the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Medical College of Wisconsin received a joint grant of $956,186 from the Biden administration for studies examining how to manage the elevated rates of breast cancer in transgender people who take estrogen for long periods of time as part of sex-change treatments. ³

In September 2025, BIDMC cardiologist Rishi Wadhera authored a British Medical Journal (BMJ) report that opposed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s Medicaid changes. The report argued that the bill endorsed by the Trump administration modeled its Medicaid reforms on a Georgia state bill that Wadhera claimed did not produce the meaningful job gains Republicans claimed they would. One such change within the One Big Beautiful Bill Act required proof of employment for many low-income Americans, a move the Trump administration claimed could save the government an estimated $317 billion. Wadhera and the BMJ report questioned the effectiveness of this policy, claiming it might harm those who are not physically able to work. ⁴

The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center also maintains a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) emphasis in its work, and as of 2025, it had a chief diversity officer who was overseeing its “community health” initiatives. The position’s title was changed in June of 2025 in response to the Trump administration’s opposition to DEI programs and the medical center’s concern about losing federal funding. ¹¹

Harvard Affiliation

The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) is the official Teaching Hospital partner of Harvard Medical School. It was also one of the founding members of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. Among BIDMC’s 1,335 physicians on the active medical staff, most hold faculty appointments at Harvard Medical School. In addition to its medical students, BIDMC provides clinical education to Harvard students across several degree programs, including nursing, social work, radiologic technology, ultrasound and nuclear medicine, and physical, occupational, speech, and respiratory therapies. ¹

BIDMC’s Carl J. Shapiro Institute for Education and Research also provides Harvard medical students and physicians in training with educational facilities, including a computer lab and a variety of educational resources that allow students to practice diagnosing, managing, and learning technical skills on simulated patients. ¹

BIDMC also has several research partnerships with Harvard Medical School, most notably through the Harvard-Thorndike Laboratory, the nation’s oldest clinical research laboratory which has been located on BIDMC’s campus. BIDMC also shares important clinical and research programs with institutions such as the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, Joslin Diabetes Center and Children’s Hospital. ¹ BIDMC is also the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. ¹²

Trump Administration Harvard Funding Freeze

In April 2025, the Trump administration announced its plans to freeze federal funding to Harvard University, including $9 billion in total funding, $2.2 billion in multiyear grants, and $60 million in multiyear contracts. Despite the funding freeze to the university, President Donald Trump’s Department of Education claimed it was not extending a sweeping funding freeze to Harvard’s healthcare affiliates, including the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). ⁵

Despite this clarification, a Harvard Crimson article claimed the Harvard affiliated hospitals would be impacted by the funding freeze, noting that five independent Boston hospitals including BIDMC received a collective $1.56 billion in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding in fiscal year 2024. Hospital representatives expressed opposition to the funding freeze, citing that the hospitals are governed independently from Harvard but rely on Harvard-related NIH grants. ⁶ Among the alleged funding freezes and cuts to the Harvard-affiliated hospitals were special NIH project grants related to transgender surgeries for children and vaccine use. ¹³

Leadership

As of 2025, Peter Healy was divisional president at Metro Boston for Beth Israel Lahey Health and president of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). At that time, he was overseeing four Boston-area academic and specialty institutions: BIDMC, the Joslin Diabetes Center, the Mount Auburn Hospital, and the New England Baptist Hospital. As president of BIDMC, Healy as of 2025 was overseeing the 766-bed academic medical center affiliated with Harvard Medical School that offers a full range of outpatient and emergency services, including a Level I Trauma Center, more than 1,600 physicians on the medical staff, over 12,000 employees, and annual research funding totaling $230 million. He joined BIDMC as president in 2017. Previously, Healy worked as president and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital–Milton (BID Milton). He has more than 25 years of hospital leadership experience in Greater Boston, including key roles at Boston Medical Center and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital. Healy earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Dayton and a master’s in health services administration from Xavier University. ¹⁴

As of 2025, Ann Berman was the chair of the board of directors at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She is a certified public accountant and has been a board member for several organizations, including Eaton Vance, Cantel Medical, the Immuneering Corporation, and the Loews Corporation. Berman holds a bachelor’s degree in French Literature and Language from Cornell University and an MBA from the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. ¹⁵

Financials

In 2024, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) reported $3,139,152,779 in total revenue, $3,096,567,744 in total expenses, and $3,809,482,771 in total assets. It also reported $200,392,684 in federally sponsored research grants that year. ¹⁶