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Mass General Brigham Alumni Association

Spotlights

Alumni spotlights

Thomas D. Sequist, MD, MPH

Tom Sequist, MD, MPH, is the Chief Medical Officer at Mass General Brigham. He oversees system-wide strategies for improving patient and clinician experiences, quality, safety, equity, pharmacy, and community health. He is a practicing general internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is a Professor of Medicine and Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sequist’s research interests focus on quality measurement and improvement, health care equity, patient and provider education, and the innovative use of health information technology.

Dr. Sequist grew up in New York though his family was originally from New Mexico. He is a member of the Taos Pueblo American Indian tribe. They moved to New York for his father’s work. Once Dr. Sequist finished high school, his family returned to New Mexico. He and his wife matched to the Brigham Internal Medicine Residency together and trained in the Harvard Vanguard/Atrius track.

Dr. Sequist loved residency. He loved being in the thick of things and learning all about medicine. He was also training during the computer boom of the late 1990s and used his bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering that he received from Cornell University to attempt to integrate the use of computers into today’s health care system. Since he always loved data sheets and workflows, it was an exciting time to be able to see the outcomes that could be implemented with the use of computers. And though he loved helping to modernize the health care industry he also always remembered his roots and where he came from.

Some mentors of Dr. Sequist during training were Marshall Wolf, MD, Patrick T. O’Gara, MD, James C. Fang, MD, FHFSA, Frederic S. Resnic, MD. John Ayanian, MD, David W. Bates, MD, Thomas H. Lee, Jr., MD, and David D. Potter, PhD.

It was during the summer before starting medical school at Harvard that Dr. Sequist began working to inspire and motivate other young American Indians to follow the same pathway that he did. With the encouragement of Dr. Potter, Dr. Sequist worked with other Native students to create the Four Directions Summer Research Program, which is a program designed for American Indian College students who are interested in pursuing a career in Medicine.

Dr. Sequist originally thought once he completed training that he would return to New Mexico and care for the people of the Taos Pueblo tribe.  At the same time, Dr. Potter encouraged him to explore the field of health policy. This way he could see how his work would directly impact and assist the American Indian population on a grander scale.

When thinking about the equity movement that started in the late 90s, the results were often about disparities between the White/Black/Asian communities. There was sometimes a category called “other” or a small footnote that read “American Indians excluded due to small sample size.” There has never been and continues to be a distressingly small number of research studies centered around the health status of American Indians.

When Dr. Sequist began his journey into health equity, Dr. Ayanian was incredibly supportive while also pointing out that he would have to do most of the footwork in the field to find the data focused on American Indian health care outcomes. Dr. Sequist eagerly accepted the challenge and continues his work in attempting to alleviate the disparities in the American Indian communities.

A study published by the CDC in 2023 showed that the American Indian population suffered the greatest loss of life during the COVID Pandemic and that the average life expectancy of the American Indian population is to the age of 65. Dr. Sequist sees these glaring, off the record disparities for the American Indian population and is determined to be a catalyst of change.

His work with the Four Directions Summer Research Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his role as the Medical Director of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Physician Outreach Program with the Indian Health Services are only some of many ways that he hopes to tackle and change the massive disparities that affect the American Indian population to this day.

Read more about Dr. Sequist and his work:

Tom Sequist, MD, MPH

Past alumni spotlights

Atul Gawande, MD

Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, was born in Brooklyn, New York but spent his childhood in Athens, Ohio. He earned his bachelor’s degree in biology and political science from Stanford University. As a Rhodes Scholar, he also earned a Master of Arts degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Balliol College, Oxford. He graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree from Harvard Medical School and earned a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.

He completed his general surgery residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he has been a longtime faculty member. Dr. Gawande is currently on leave from BWH to lead Global Health at USAID, the US Agency for International Development. President Joseph Biden appointed Dr. Gawande to this role. He works closely with the Centers for Disease Control on complex problems ranging from disaster relief, conflict zones, food security and health equity.

When choosing where to complete his residency training, Dr. Gawande chose BWH due to a combination of happenstance and draw. At the time, his wife was pregnant and so it would be practical to stay in the general Boston area but also, in meeting Michael Zinner, MD, the Chief of Surgery at the time, Dr. Gawande was given a unique opportunity to both train in Surgery and follow his passion for public policy and health reform. He also fell in love with the operating room and was continually amazed at what people can do with their hands and their minds.

Along with Michael Zinner, MD, some mentors of Dr. Gawande’s were Troy Brennan, MD, Paul Farmer, MD, Jim Kim, MD, Howard Hyatt, MD. Dr. Gawande also cites Mark McClellan, MD, who was in the same internship year as he, who went on to head the FDA, as another example of BWH being fertile training ground for leaders in health policy.

A longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, Dr. Gawande is also a New York Times bestselling author of four books: Complications; A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science; Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance; The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right and Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End.

He initially began his writing career submitting articles for Slate Magazine, an online periodical that his colleagues created. As his audience began to grow and the opportunity to write for The New Yorker emerged, Dr. Gawande began to tackle more difficult issues in his writing, such as why medical errors occur, the learning curve of being a surgeon and what matters most to patients in the end. Under the watchful eye of Michael Zinner, MD, his writing career flourished. It was the supportive atmosphere, the ability to take chances and the opportunity to train in a top-level program at a top-level hospital and write for a top-level magazine that made the Brigham such a special place for Dr. Gawande.

Dr. Gawande also passionately believes that the spirit of innovation and being surrounded by like-minded physicians whose goal is better patient care and outcomes is part of what makes BWH and Harvard so special. In developing new techniques and running large scale trials, Dr. Gawande was able to form a research team that grew into a health systems innovation center called Ariadne Labs located in Boston. At Ariadne labs, faculty work together, taking on various issues in healthcare from surgery/primary care/end of life care and childbirth and work as a collaborative team and tie their successes together.

Atul Gawande, MD

Graham McMahon, MD

Graham T. McMahon, MD, MMSc is the current President and CEO of the Accreditation Council of Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and was recently awarded the Alumni Educator Award from the Office of Graduate Medical Education at Mass General Brigham. He also received the Alumni Achievement Award from Mass General Brigham in 2022.

Dr. McMahon received his MBchB from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1997 and went onto receive his MMsc from Harvard Medical School and his PhD from the National University of Ireland in 2005. He completed his residency and fellowship training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and served as the program director for the Brigham's Endocrinology Fellowship from 2013 to 2015.

Dr. McMahon has acted in many leadership roles, has close to 100 publications under his name and is a member of numerous professional societies within medicine. His true passion lies in advancing the quality of continuing medical education (CME) and continuing professional development (CPD) by reviving the educational atmosphere from dry lectures in dark rooms to interactive and inclusive opportunities for genuine professional development across multiple healthcare fields.  

Graham McMahon, MD

Faculty spotlights

Adeline A. Boatin, MD, MPH

Adeline A. Boatin, MD, MPH, is an Obstetrics & Gynecology specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, an assistant professor in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School and an affiliate faculty for the Center for Global Health at MGH, and the Program for Global Surgery and Social Change at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Boatin received her medical degree from Columbia University and received a master’s in public health with a focus on International Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. She completed her undergraduate training at Harvard University before graduating from medical school in New York. She was unsure if she would return to Boston due to the infamous winter weather, but when it came time to choose her residency program, she said she knew she wanted a place that would champion and foster her longterm goal of working in global women’s health. And the integrated Obstetrics & Gynecology residency program was world renowned. Its reputation helped sway her, but the real clincher, she said, was a get together held by the current residents during interview season.

Even though it was freezing cold and sleeting outside, Dr. Boatin found comfort and reassurance in the camaraderie and warmth that the residents instilled in one another. As an international trainee, Dr. Boatin wanted to find her home away from home and she knew that she had found that with the Obstetrics & Gynecology residency program.

Some mentors during her training were Ruth E. Tuomala, MD, Lori R. Berkowitz, MD, Carey M. York-Best, MD, Annekathryn Goodman, MD, MPH, Blair Wylie, MD, Khady Diouf, MD, Laura Riley, MD, Nawal Nour, MD, MPH, MBA, and Isaac Schiff, MD. They were all essential in empowering Dr. Boatin to advocate for herself and her career path even though it was not technically traditional. They never discouraged or deterred her from following her dreams and she is grateful for their teaching and friendship to this day.

Dr. Boatin’s work focuses on ensuring that women in low resource settings make it to the hospital in time for a successful delivery and that quality follow up care is provided to the mother and newborn. She has been piloting projects with wearable medical devices that track women’s during and after childbirth, so that they can monitor the patients despite severe staffing shortages.

There is not a single moment, but a conglomeration of many that stand out to Dr. Boatin when reflecting on her residency training. Though the faculty she trained with were all hard working and professional, they also knew how to bring levity and lightness to sometimes intensely stressful situations.

And there was always someone there for support. During an emergency surgery, Dr. Boatin remembers having prepped the patient in the OR and just as she thought to herself, “I need an attending,” Brian W. Walsh, MD, appeared, as if by magic, and helped her with the procedure. She never felt alone or unsupported during her training, she said, and she makes sure to tell prospective trainees that, whenever she can.

Read more about Dr. Boatin and her work: 

Adeline A. Boatin, MD, MPH

Past faculty spotlights

Katherine McGowan, MD

For more than forty years, Dr. Katherine “Kay” McGowan, has provided care to the most vulnerable and marginalized patients in the greater Boston area. In the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, she was on the frontline in providing care for those suffering from what was then a terminal illness in her practices at Faulkner (now Brigham and Women’s Faulkner) Hospital and at the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital. She has continued to be a leading practitioner in the area of HIV/AIDS as it has now become a treatable infectious disease.

Over the course of her career in medicine, she has seen other new and emerging infectious diseases, including COVID-19 and monkeypox, alter the course of the practice of medicine. As COVID-19 emerged in the Boston area in 2019, Dr. McGowan helped to oversee Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital’s response in her role as Chief of the Division of Infectious Disease. In addition to her role as an infectious disease specialist, she also provided primary care for many years in her practice at Brigham and Women’s/Faulkner.

Dr. McGowan graduated from Tufts University School of Medicine in 1975 and completed her internal medicine residency and fellowship at Tufts Medical Center. She is board-certified in both internal medicine and infectious diseases.

Over the years, Dr. McGowan has garnered a reputation for being dedicated, conscientious and an exemplary professional. She is known not only as an outstanding clinician but also an outstanding teacher of her colleagues, medical students, residents, and nurse practitioners. When not practicing medicine, she cherishes spending time with family, especially her grandchild.

Katherine McGowan, MD