A note from Dr. Volandes -
Two decades ago, while giving a lecture at Dartmouth, I met Jack Wennberg. Dr. Wennberg, whose work on the variability of healthcare based on geography changed the course of medicine, suggested that I explore the variability of how patients and doctors share in decision-making when it came to serious illness. That suggestion planted a seed I nurtured for the next two decades at Massachusetts General Hospital. Everything I have worked on since, from video decision aids to large pragmatic clinical trials, descends from that Dartmouth idea. So when I say that coming back and joining Dartmouth Health after two decades in Boston felt like coming home, I truly mean it! This is where my intellectual life began.
Three priorities will guide the coming year: First, rural and community health research, because the people of northern New England deserve science designed to improve their lives. Second, AI and pragmatic trial methods, which let us answer clinical questions faster and at lower cost, inside the systems where patients receive their care. Third, our young clinician-scientists, because the next generation of investigators is the only research infrastructure that will be here over time.
Over the last few weeks, I have been on a listening tour across Dartmouth Health, and here are the themes I keep hearing: to collaborate, to move faster, and to matter. That is what gets me up each morning: the belief that research matters. I am a physician-scientist because I believe research is how we keep our promises to patients. The communities we serve should feel the benefit of our science in their own lives. I can think of no better place to do that work than Dartmouth Health.
My door is open. Come find me.
Angelo Volandes, MD, MPH
Contact Principal Investigator and co-Director of SYNERGY
Interim Chief Research Officer
Dartmouth SYNERGY CTSI