Living through my father’s journey with a serious progressive illness was a major catalyst in my becoming a patient advocate. My family and I struggled to make sense of the many and sometimes conflicting recommendations we received from various doctors. It was a palliative care specialist who helped us to understand what my father was going through and who gave us the tools we needed to make the best decisions that we could at the different stages of his disease.
That experience compelled me to work with patients and their families in similar circumstances to ours, to specialize in treating patients like my father, and to learn to advocate for them with expertise.
Following medical school, I came back to Boston to complete my family medicine residency at Boston Medical Center.
After years of practice in primary care and hospital medicine I returned to training and completed my fellowship in hospice and palliative care at Beth Israel Deaconess.
I am dual board-certified in both Family Medicine and Hospice Palliative care.
In my practice as a physician, I found that the best work I did for my patients was not in sending them to see more specialists or ordering tests. The most valuable part of my job was listening to and learning from my patients, facilitating discussion among the many specialists involved in their care, and explaining the nature of their condition to them and their families.
Unfortunately, my time was far too constrained as a physician employee within the healthcare system. My patients and families would ask for more frequent visits or for me to help other friends or family members, but I lacked the availability to address their needs.
I created Circle Advocacy in order to help patients and families at a level ordinarily not possible within the constraints of the healthcare system.
Video consultations available throughout Massachusetts.
Face to face meetings available in:
