Alumni Perspectives

Informing to Empower

by Stephanie Rolin, MD, MPH, MED ’14 MPH ’08, Forensic Psychiatrist and Physician Scientist, Howard University 

Misinformation has become a real barrier to health and wellness. Patients are not just navigating insurance and waitlists. They’re also sorting through a stream of conflicting, politicized, and sometimes false medical claims. When people can’t tell what’s credible, they may delay care, avoid treatment, or lose trust in clinicians.  

I see this often in psychiatry. Young people and families come in after reading alarming things online about diagnoses or medications. Some of it is incomplete. Some of it is simply wrong. If we don’t talk about it directly, it affects whether they engage in care at all.  

That reality shapes both my clinical work and research, which emphasizes shared decision-making. In practice, that means slowing down, reviewing evidence clearly, and making sure patients understand risks, benefits, and alternatives. I also co-host “Rolin Forward,” a public health podcast where we unpack health and policy debates so families can make sense of them.  

Access only works when people understand what they’re being offered.  

Care as a System

by Ryan Budwany, MD, MBA, MPH ’05, Chief Medical Officer, PainHealth Interventional Pain Management 

Training at Geisel taught me a fundamental truth: Medicine is a science, but care is a system. Today, the greatest barrier to health is not a lack of expertise—it is the complexity of accessing it. Patients navigating healthcare often face a fragmented maze of specialists and insurers, where the burden of coordination falls on them at their most vulnerable. This is not a failure of compassion; it is a failure of design.  

The physician-patient relationship remains the most powerful healing force in medicine. Yet it is still largely confined to brief encounters within clinic walls. The next decade of healthcare will be defined by redesigning care to extend human connection beyond physical space.  

In my work, I pioneered the first physician-guided AI avatar —a new model for how doctors can remain continuously present beyond the exam room. These digital agents do not replace physicians; they amplify them. They provide real-time education and monitoring, making high-quality care continuous, personalized, and equitable. This is augmentation, not automation: restoring the physician’s presence at scale.  

Dartmouth has long asked not only what medicine can do, but how it must evolve. We now have the tools to remove friction from the system and strengthen the human core of care. The question is no longer whether technology will shape healthcare—but whether physicians will lead that transformation. That work is already underway.  

Access to Dignity After Trauma

by Rajeev Fernando, MD, FEL ’10, Founder, CEO, Chief Medical Officer, Chiraj Inc. 

The Yazidis are a small community in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq. In August of 2014, a terrorist organization abducted thousands of Yazidi women and children. Today, 3,000 remain missing. As chief medical officer for non-profits Chiraj and Medical Aid Initiative Norway, I am honored to work with a facility that provides medical, psychological, social, and legal services for Yazidi women and girls who survived.  

Optimizing their mental health remains the biggest challenge. Numerous women and girls lost parents, husbands and children, and were exposed to extreme violence, rape and exploitation. Most are living with severe PTSD and need long‑term, continuous psychological and social support. We are also receiving new survivors who have returned after many years in captivity, often after spending their entire adolescence with terrorists. Working with them requires very intensive, long‑term mental health care and careful reintegration into their families and communities. As many of our survivors live in the mountains, we help with transportation to these services, too.  

Survivors also need livelihoods and empowerment programs so they can rebuild their lives, become more independent, and reintegrate into society with dignity. Many of our survivors have lost a sense of their humanity. This year, on March 8— International Women’s Day—we hosted an event that offered lunches, art therapy, and cosmetics.  

Social Support Leads to Healthier Outcomes

by Anubhav Kaul, MD, MPH ’13, Chief Medical Officer, Upward Health 

One of the strongest predictors of how a patient will fare in the hospital isn’t simply the severity of their disease— it’s whether someone is sitting beside them. Research consistently shows that patients with strong social and caregiver support experience lower readmission rates and better recovery outcomes.  

Patients are at their most vulnerable in healthcare settings. Without support, their questions can go unasked and their preferences unheard. My perspective has been deeply shaped by The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice’s promotion of shared decision-making—the idea that patients deserve not just information, but true partnership in choosing care that aligns with their values. Yet shared decision-making can only effectively happen when patients feel empowered enough to participate.  

At Upward Health, a home-based medical group providing primary medical and behavioral care, we serve patients from diverse backgrounds who often face the greatest barriers to engagement: social isolation, language differences, housing instability, or mistrust of the system. Our community health workers and care teams show up consistently and build trust. Over time, that steady advocacy builds patient confidence and creates greater equity in the healthcare experience.  

Access to care is not only about availability; it is about ensuring every patient’s voice is heard and advocated for.