Ben Kruskal

Ben Kruskal is a physician executive, pediatrician and infectious disease specialist. He is currently a medical director at Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA, where he works on medical policy and novel care models.

Ben practiced pediatrics and infectious disease for twenty years. and served for more than 15 years in a variety of leadership positions at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates/Atrius Health, a multi-site, multi-specialty group practice/health system in eastern Mass. For more than four years, Ben was a medical director at Tufts Medicine Integrated Network (formerly the New England Quality Care Alliance), helping network physicians improve their contract performance.

Ben coordinated the reponses of large organizations to infectious outbreaks, including SARS, 2009 H1N1 flu, Ebola and Covid-19.

Dr Kruskal is passionately interested in improving how health care is delivered. He served in a variety of formal and informal quality improvement roles at Harvard Vanguard/Atrius Health from 1998 to 2018.

Kruskal went to college at the University of Pennsylvania. He attended medical school at New York University, graduating with both an MD and a PhD in cell biology. He did his pediatric residency and infectious disease fellowship at Boston City Hospital (Boston Medical Center).

Dr Kruskal was on the faculty at Children's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, doing laboratory research as well as attending in infectious diseases. His research was supported by the Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the NIH. He collaborated with researchers at Harvard Medical School's Department of Population Medicine and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, focused on the use of electronic systems for surveillance and quality improvement.

Dr. Kruskal has authored more than thirty peer-reviewed publications. He has particular interests in vaccines and travel medicine, pandemic and disaster management, and the intersection of behavioral health and primary care. He has worked closely with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, serving on several committees related to emergency preparedness and to vaccines.