Benjamin Chan, MD, MPH '13, RES ’10 RES '14

State Epidemiologist, New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services Infectious Disease and Preventative Medicine Physician, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

Colleagues describe Benjamin Chan, MD, MPH ’13 RES ’10 RES ’14 as a calm presence and confident leader—even in the face of the most widespread public health crisis of the past century.  

As New Hampshire’s State Epidemiologist since 2014, Chan has dedicated himself to population health with a spirit of compassion and offstage public service, but the emergence of the novel coronavirus took his commitment to a career-defining—and very publicly visible—level. He helped lead New Hampshire’s COVID-19 response, putting his leadership as the state’s top infectious disease physician under the microscope. Residents found he was more than capable of rising to the challenge, and colleagues say his guidance through the tremendously difficult days of the pandemic highlights his stamina as a devoted public servant and physician.  

Despite finishing his residency, Chan never truly left Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. He was a hospital medicine staff physician from 2010 to 2011 and has served as an infectious disease staff physician since 2017, contributing both clinically and academically to the section of infectious disease while also leading the pandemic response at the state level. He trains medical students, residents, and fellows in infectious disease and public health through the Leadership Preventive Medicine Residency program, investing in the learners as future leaders.

While a learner himself, Chan focused on improving the quality of infectious disease management, leading a team of healthcare providers to implement a new pharmacist-driven drug-monitoring program for an antibiotic used to treat drug-resistant infections like MRSA. Blood draws were specifically timed and evaluated, allowing dosing to be adjusted immediately to ensure the antibiotic levels remained within therapeutic range. This drug-monitoring system is largely still in use at the hospital.

His early interest in quality improvement work remains steady to this day: “I enjoy developing new or innovative ways to address population health problems and finding ways to better measure the impact of our public health work,” Chan says. His constant focus is on creating lasting change with improved system performance and patient outcomes.

Chan continues to look toward the future, evaluating and responding to emerging public health threats. He is ready to take on the next big challenge, whether responding to the re-emergence of previously eradicated diseases at home or monitoring serious disease outbreaks abroad. Chan says, though, that he hopes the COVID-19 pandemic was a “once-in-a-lifetime event.” But, either way, he says, “We will continue to implement evidence-based recommendations that protect the health of New Hampshire residents to the best of our ability.”

He embodies the ideals of the Young Alumni Award and the promise of a career devoted to science and the public good, and we are pleased to give him this honor. 

 

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