Caring for the Caregivers: A Conversation with the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation

Authors

  • Stefanie Simmons, MD

    Chief Medical Officer

    Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation

    Stefanie Simmons, MD, is the chief medical officer at the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation and a board-certified emergency medicine (EM) physician. She advised the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on the "Impact Wellbeing™" guide for health care leaders. Dr. Simmons leads multistate programs aimed at improving operational environments and removing barriers to mental health care. She is also a national thought leader in health care worker well-being. Dr. Simmons earned her MD from the University of Michigan and completed her residency training at the University of Michigan/St. Joseph Mercy EM residency.

  • Diann Krywko, MD

    Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine

    Medical University of South Carolina

    Diann Krywko, MD, is the chair of the department of emergency medicine at Medical University of South Carolina. She completed her undergraduate studies at Michigan State University-Lyman Briggs College of Natural Sciences in 1992 and graduated from Wayne State University School of Medicine in 1996.

  • Amanda J. Deutsch, MD

    Thomas Jefferson University

    Dr. Amanda J. Deutsch, MD is a Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of Well-Being for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. Dr. Deutsch earned her undergraduate degree at Harvard University. She subsequently completed her post-baccalaureate and did quality improvement research at Boston Children’s Hospital before starting her career as a medical student at the University of Iowa, where she is from. She completed an Emergency Medicine residency at the University of Pennsylvania, where she completed a track in Healthcare Leadership and Quality Improvement. She most recently completed a fellowship in Physician Wellness at Stanford Emergency Medicine. In her inaugural role as Director of Well-Being at the Department of Emergency Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University she combines her interests in clinical operations, process improvements and well-being.

    Dr. Deutsch chairs the #StopTheStigmaEM subcommittee and hopes to normalize conversations around mental health for emergency medicine physicians, address barriers, and foster better mental health care for emergency medicine. Her interests include focusing on gratitude and appreciation to develop a sense of community and a team that can excel for their patients without the cost of their interests, self, and career. Dr. Deutsch loves to tweak process improvements to help foster well-being.

  • Al'ai Alvarez, MD

    Stanford Emergency Medicine

    Al'ai Alvarez, MD (@alvarezzzy) is a national leader and educator on wellness, diversity, equity, and Inclusion. He is a clinical associate professor of Emergency Medicine (EM) and Well-Being Director at Stanford Emergency Medicine. He co-leads the Human Potential Team and serves as the Stanford EM Physician Wellness Fellowship Director. He is the Chair of the Stanford WellMD's Physician Wellness Forum and Director of the Physician Resource Network (PRN) Support Program. His work focuses on humanizing physician roles as individuals and teams by harnessing the individual human potential in the context of high-performance teams. This includes optimizing the interconnectedness between Process Improvement (Quality and Clinical Operations), Recruitment (Diversity and Representation), and Well-being (Inclusion and Belonging). He is one of the 2021-2022 Faculty Fellows at the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign.

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