Founders

Sarah Bachrach, PA

Sarah began working with Bob Master at the Uphams Corner Health Center in 1977. She then joined Bob, Roger Mark, John Jainchill and Marie Feltin as they began their team practice in nursing homes prior to founding Urban Medical. Sarah recalls the intense dedication they all felt to their work—exemplified by their meeting every Friday at 6:30 a.m.—including the morning of the Great Blizzard of 1978!

In the early days of Urban Medical, Sarah worked closely with her colleagues on a successful legislative campaign to get prescriptive privileges for nurse-practitioners and physician assistants, privileges critical to the success of the Urban Medical model.

Sarah practiced at Urban Medical until 1985 and pioneered the expanding role of mid-level practitioners, including physician assistants and nurse practitioners. In 1985 she began developing policy for the Department of Public Health (DPH) and in 1992 was appointed Deputy Director of the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services in the DPH. In 2001 Sarah was appointed Commissioner of the Hospital Bureau of the DPH and held that position until 2003 when she returned to clinical work as a physician assistant at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital.

Sarah lives in Dorchester and is the mother of two grown children.

Jeanne Dahlberg, NP

Jeanne began working in Home Health Care at Beth Israel Hospital and went on to be one of the Founders of Urban Medical Group. She was part of the dedicated group that met at 6:30am on Friday and was very active in the early pioneering team work in nursing homes.

Marie Feltin, MD

As a founder of Urban Medical Group, Marie was a pioneer in providing medical care to society’s most neglected and vulnerable populations. Recognizing how difficult it was for patients to get to the doctor’s office, Marie and her colleagues took up home-visiting to provide medical care. Using her experience at Urban Medical she went on to found East Boston Health Center’s Home Care Program and Boston’s Community Medical Group.

Known for her egalitarian approach, Marie broke down barriers between patients and physicians and between physicians and nurses. Marie passed away in 1994 and as a testament to her dedication to providing compassionate care to persons with disabilities, the Boston Center for Independent Living (BCIL) has dedicated its annual award celebration to her memory. In the words of the BCIL award citation, Marie “saw in the severely disabled a person who could live independently, and she viewed ‘empowerment’ as not just an abstract ideological goal but as a practical strategy to promote health and function.”

Marie found her way to Boston via Montreal and McGill University after being born in Nazi-occupied France and christened under an assumed name to avoid the terrors of the Holocaust because she was Jewish. She married Urban Medical Founder, Bob Master and together they raised five children.

Deborah R. Grimes

Known internally as the “mother” of Urban Medical, Deb has worked in support of non-profit health care in Boston for 32 years. Her involvement in Urban Medical dates back to 1976 when she joined Roger Mark, Bob Master and others at the Nursing Home Telemedicine Program of Boston City Hospital.

In 1977, Deb took on the roles of administrator, receptionist and accountant for the newly incorporated Urban Medical. During a few short breaks for child-rearing and a real estate venture, Deb helped start two other notable Boston health care practices—Urban Women and Child Health and Community Medical Group. In the early 1990s, Deb returned full time to serve as Urban Medical’s office manager and later as quality assurance administrator.

Deb has served as House Calls coordinator since 2000. The clinicians will tell you that she is the “glue that holds House Calls together” and that she has committed to memory every patient that has ever been in the program. With her love of cooking and good food, Deb also plays the role of Urban Medical chef par excellence. In 2007, Deb became Urban Medical’s first non-provider employee to join the Board of Directors. She and her husband, Ed Grimes, have two adult children.

John Jainchill, MD

John began his medical career at Boston City Hospital teaching primary care and treating the urban poor. There he met Drs. Bob Master and Roger Mark and found that they shared a dedication to provide quality health care to all people of Boston and an impatience with the “status quo”. Together with Dr. Marie Feltin they founded Urban Medical. For John it meant the opportunity to build his own practice, work in a neighborhood health setting, and to be able to follow his patients in the hospital as needed.

Two years later his partner Dr. Geraldine Zagarella (known as Zag) joined the practice. The two were married in 1981. They have been working together at Urban Medical ever since 1979—known widely as caregivers who become lifelong friends and supporters of their patients. John has passed on his skills and love of primary care to many medical students and residents through Urban Medical’s affiliation with Harvard Medical School.

John and Zag raised four children none of whom, according to John, “went anywhere near medicine, after seeing what Zag and I do.” Born, raised and educated in New York City—including a BA from Columbia College and an MD from Columbia Medical School--John is proud of his undying allegiance to the erstwhile New York Giants, now of San Francisco.

Roger Mark, MD, PhD

Roger Mark developed the original Nursing Home Telemedicine Program at Boston City Hospital. This program, which pioneered the use of MD/NP teams in the nursing home, demonstrated that primary care could be provided cost effectively to nursing home residents and improve their quality of life. Roger and his colleagues then led the effort to change state and Federal laws to allow NPs to provide care in the nursing home. Out of this work, the Urban Medical model and Urban Medical Group was born.

Today, Roger Mark is the Distinguished Professor of Health Sciences & Technology and Profess or of Electrical Engineering at MIT. There he runs an NIH-funded research program that applies electrical engineering techniques to understanding human physiology, particularly in the context of critical care. From 1985-1996, Roger served as co-director of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, a unique collaboration that brings together MIT, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston teaching hospitals, and an assortment of research centers.

In the midst of all his academic commitments, Roger has maintained a consistent part-time practice at Urban Medical since the 1970s, focusing on providing care to elders living in skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities. Roger has been educated in the Boston area in institutions ranging from Brookline High School to MIT to Harvard Medical School. He and his wife, Dorothy, have raised four children-two of whom have also ventured into primary care medicine.

Robert J. Master, MD

Bob Master’s career has focused on creating innovative organizations that address the medical issues of complex, chronically ill, and disabled individuals. Of these, Urban Medical was the first!

He practiced at Urban Medical until 1985 where he and the other Founders helped define a new approach to nursing home and home medical care through partnership between physicians and nurse practitioners. Bob served as medical director of the Massachusetts Medicaid program from 1985-1988 and as chair of the Health Services Department of Boston University School of Public Health from 1988-1995 where he continues to be an associate professor. From 1992-1996, Bob served as: president and medical director of Community Medical Alliance (CMA), an experimental HMO caring for individuals with severe disabilities and AIDS; and principal investigator of the Medicaid Working Group, a partnership to develop new reimbursement and clinical care programs for people with severe disabilities or chronic illness. After CMA’s affiliation with Neighborhood Health Plan in 1996, Bob served as chief medical officer of both organizations until 2002.

In 2003, Bob was awarded a Soros/Open Society Institute two-year fellowship. At the same time, he was named president and CEO of the Commonwealth Care Alliance, a statewide nonprofit consumer-governed care system whose mission is to expand clinical programs such as those offered by Urban Medical statewide.

Bob is currently raising the youngest of his 6 children with his wife, Patricia Hertz. Bob serves as a community member on Urban Medical’s board of directors.