Dr. Everett Lamm and Dr. Hugh Taylor, MMS President, presented Dr. Kaplan with the award on March 24, 2025, at the Berkshire District Annual Meeting.
We are proud to share that Dr. Michael Kaplan of CHP Lee Family Practice has been honored by the Berkshire District Medical Society as its 2025 Community Clinician of the Year awardee. The Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) award recognizes a practitioner from each district medical society who has significantly contributed to patients and the community.
In 1987, he came to the Berkshires to practice in Lee, where he cared for the same patient population at Lee Family Practice (LFP) until retiring last year. His practice was initially affiliated with Hillcrest Hospital and Berkshire Medical Center; he established a private practice in 1999 with Dr. Melanie Levitan. In 2004, they opened a new medical office in Lee, and that facility has been operating since 2012 as CHP’s Lee Family Practice. Though retired, he periodically cares for patients at LFP to help meet our community’s needs.
He has always been interested in teaching medical students, residents, and nurse practitioners. Since 1983, he has been an Associate in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and an Instructor in the Department of Family Medicine at Tufts School of Medicine. In 2008, the Massachusetts Academy of Family Physicians named him Family Medicine Educator of the Year. Tufts School of Medicine named him Outstanding Preceptor for his teaching of medical students in his office in Lee.
Dr. Kaplan has a passion for serving all his patients without regard to insurance or ability to pay. As a founding member (1986) of Physicians for a National Health Program, he has advocated for Universal Single-Payer Health Insurance for All, speaking locally and nationally. He was the first to propose that the MMS adopt Health Care as a Human Right as policy, and in 2019, the House of Delegates adopted it, later being adopted by the AMA.
Volunteering has played a significant role for him, including going to Honduras and Haiti to provide medical care after natural disasters. He is planning to spend time working with Volunteers in Medicine/Berkshires and, in February, went on a medical mission to the Dominican Republic.
The Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) is the statewide professional association for physicians and medical students, supporting 25,000 members. We are dedicated to educating and advocating for the physicians of Massachusetts and patients locally and nationally. A leadership voice in health care, the MMS contributes physician and patient perspectives to influence health-related legislation at the state and federal levels, works in support of public health, provides expert advice on physician practice management, and addresses issues of physician well-being. Under the auspices of the NEJM Group, the MMS extends our mission globally by advancing medical knowledge from research to patient care through the New England Journal of Medicine, NEJM Catalyst, and the NEJM Journal Watch family of specialty publications, and through our education products for health care professionals: NEJM Knowledge+, NEJM Resident 360, and our accredited and comprehensive continuing medical education programs.