ER physician Matt Harrison MPH’18 questioned whether the DEA's restrictions on prescribing hydrocodone products ultimately reduced opioid prescribing rates -- he published his MPH thesis findings on this topic in Clinical Toxicology.
Alumni News & Notes
Learn about the recent accomplishments of your fellow Dartmouth Institute alumni—
Benjamin recently published an article in Medical Care. His work focuses on how expanding state Medicaid programs could help improve access to treatment for opioid addiction. Cher, who started this research as a student last year, was mentored by Dartmouth Institute professors and leading health services researchers Ellen Meara and Nancy Morden.
Matt Harrison MPH’18 As an ER physician, Matt questioned whether the DEA's restrictions on prescribing hydrocodone products ultimately reduced opioid prescribing rates -- as he saw his colleagues switch to prescribing other opioids to treat the same symptoms. He used his integrative learning experience project in The Dartmouth Institute’s online MPH program to investigate whether a similar scenario was unfolding in hospitals across the country. His findings were recently published in Clinical Toxicology.
Maggie Cooke MPH'18
Maggie co-authored the paper, "Exploring the Potential of Tax Credits for Funding Population Health" with her colleagues at the Rippel Foundation and ReThink Health. The article, which was published in the National Academy of Medicine, explores creative solutions to sustainably fund population health by potentially using tax credits.
Jared Rhoads MPH’16
Jared joined the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation in Vermont as director of the foundation’s nationally acclaimed debate program. The debate program centers around topics in public policy and economics. The flexibility in Jared’s role will enable him to serve on the Capstone Faculty for the on-campus MPH program at The Dartmouth Institute, and to pursue research projects in health policy.
Thom Walsh MS'02, PhD'12
In his latest book, Finding What Matters Most to Patients, Dartmouth Institute alumnus and faculty member Thom Walsh gives healthcare teams a better understanding of how to use patient-reported data, shared decision making, and motivational interviewing in providing value-based care.
Jonathan Ballard, MD, MPH’14 Jonathan recently started as the Chief Medical Officer for the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services. After working as Kentucky’s State Epidemiologist, Jonathan writes that he is excited to be back in New Hampshire with his New England-native wife, Patricia, and their two-year-old daughter, Caroline.
Lisa (Jackson) Lucas MPH’14
Lisa and her husband, Rob, have enjoyed adventuring around their new home of Colorado Springs, CO. As often as possible they bring their dogs Omar and Daisy along for the adventure. Pictured right: Lisa, Daisy, Omar, and Rob’s elbow take in a day at the Pikes Peak Celtic Festival in June, with Pikes Peak looming in the background.
Yuki Aoyagi, MD, MPH’13 Yuki moved to New Zealand with her family in 2015 after two years of working in Rwanda as a Geisel staff member under the Human Resources for Health Program. Yuki is currently working at Whangarei Hospital in Northland Region as a consultant physician in general medicine and infectious diseases. She is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, and an honorary senior lecturer in medicine at the University of Auckland. She also co-published the textbook, Preventive Medicine, earlier this year from Maruzen Publishing in Tokyo, Japan.
Steven Powell, MD, MPH’12Steven has accepted a new position as Chief Medical Officer at MedOptions. MedOptions is the largest provider of Behavioral Health in the U.S. across 20 states and currently employs 450 providers. Additionally, Steven has been appointed to the Adva-Net Clinical Advisory Panel. Adva-Net focuses on pain management in the workers compensation space.
Catherine Florio Pipas, MD, MPH'11 Catherine published her new book, A Doctors Dozen: 12 Strategies for Personal Health and A Culture of Wellness. Catherine writes that she “wrote the book as a toolkit for health professionals and for all who strive to prioritize their own wellbeing, cultivate a healthy environment, or implement a wellness curriculum.” The book is already being incorporated into book clubs, faculty development, and curriculum for students and residents. Visit www.catherinefloriopipas.com to learn more about her book and events.
Bianca Belcher, PA-C, MPH’10
Bianca was selected as a LinkedIn Top Voice in Healthcare for 2018 for her posts on the role of mid-level clinicians in patient care. She also tackles leadership topics in her articles, such as how to get more physician assistants into management roles.
Andrew Quao MPH’10
Andrew started Redbird Health Tech, which focuses on providing convenient care to people with chronic diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa. His company launched in July and is live in seven pharmacies across Accra, Ghana.
Michael “Mike” Rezaee, MD, MPH’10 Mike is a PGY-2 Urology resident at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. He recently won third place in the 2018 Max K. Willscher Resident Research Award Competition through the New England Section of the American Urological Association. The award was for his research on "Stent duration and increased pain in the hours of ureteral stent removal: An EDGE Multi-Institutional Survey." Mike also recently published a first-author paper in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
Desiree Fehmie MPH’10 Desiree recently accepted the position of project coordinator at the Center for Innovative Public Health Research (CiPHR). She is currently working across three projects. The first project is focused on helping to prevent teen pregnancy in the LGBT community; the second project focuses on HIV/STD prevention for adults in selected African countries; and the third project focuses on providing resources for individuals living with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.
Michael Yim, MD, MPH’10 Michael graduated from Anesthesiology Residency in 2018 from UC Davis and is currently doing a Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellowship at Texas Children’s Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. As a resident, Michael is putting his MPH training to use by taking part in quality improvement projects that focus on case cancellation. While at UC Davis, Michael received the GME High Value Care competition award for analyzing contributing factors to case cancellations and using the perioperative surgical home model as a guide for improvement.
Jeremiah Brown PhD ’06, MS ’03
Jeremiah's research team at The Dartmouth Institute, which includes Lisa Zubkoff, PhD'07, MS'96; Elizabeth Carpenter-Song; James O’Malley; and Kevin Cox; was awarded a $3.5 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIH) to fund research aimed at preventing acute kidney injury during cardiac catheterization.
Diana M. Luan PhD’06, MS’98
Diana is proud of her son, Patrick, who has graduated with a DrPH from the Uniformed Services University and will be working for the Institute for Defense Analysis. Diana recently took on a new position building health services research capability for the Defense Health Agency. In her spare time, Diana volunteers to raise puppies for Veterans Moving Forward, an organization that provides service dogs to disabled veterans.
Shannon Sweeney MPH’09
Shannon is living in New Jersey working at Rutgers University as a research associate on the ESCALATES project. The ESCALATES project is the national evaluation of the AHRQ-funded EvidenceNOW cardiovascular prevention initiative. She and her husband, Tyson Seely (Tuck ’13), just welcomed their first child, Scarlett “Etta” Aylwin Seely, born on August 29, 2018 in Morristown, New Jersey.
James “Jim” DiResta, DPM, MPH’04James wrote in to highlight the new appointment of Chia-Ding Shih, DOM, MPH’18, as a Clinical Instructor of Surgery in his new fellowship position with Dr. David Armstrong at USC Keck School of Medicine.
Max Theis MPH’09
Max is starting his own value-based-purchasing consulting firm, Feis Consulting, which will be based in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area.
Paul Woods, MD, MS’07
Paul assumed the role of President and CEO of London Health Sciences Centre on January 15, 2018.
Philip “Phil” Morphew MS’98
Phil writes in that he is continuing to enjoy his position as CEO of the Indiana Primary Healthcare Association. He notes, “We were thrilled to host Paul Batalden as our guest speaker to the membership on October 5, 2018.”
George Spencer-Green, MD, MS'96
George received the 2018 Morley Science Award from Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio. The award goes to an alumnus/alumna of the Western Reserve Academy who shows outstanding achievement in the sciences. George, a rheumatologist, is a clinical leader in biologic therapies development having worked for both Abbott and Pfizer, and leading his teams to bring some of the largest selling medications in the U.S. to market.