Lorna B. Stuart, DPhil, MD, a family physician for more than thirty years and medical director of The Clinic, is the featured speaker for Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth’s 2015 Class Day activities, Saturday, June 6 at 9 a.m. in the Leede Arena at Berry Sports Center.
Stuart has long been an advocate of promoting wellness for all. After 22 years in private practice, she and Reverend Marie Z. Swayze founded The Clinic, a nonprofit medical clinic in Phoenixville, PA, to “provide quality health care to the uninsured in an atmosphere that fosters dignity and respect.” Stuart believes compassionate listening is the cornerstone of all medical care—no matter how rushed, how tired, or how busy as physician may be taking time to sit with patients and really listen to them makes a difference. Compassion may not cure, but it heals.
Since opening its doors in 2002, The Clinic’s largely volunteer staff of physicians and nurses, clinicians, and clerical staff provided care for nearly 100,000 patients, treating both acute and chronic conditions. Many of The Clinic’s patients are immigrants, recently separated couples, people new to the community, and working people for whom insurance is too expensive. They are asked to make a nominal donation for their visits based on what they can afford. Patients also have access to an on-site food pantry and donated clothing.
Drawing on their deep roots within the community, partnerships with local hospitals allow The Clinic’s patients to receive medical tests at little or no cost. Hospitals also provide a pharmaceutical stipend to help defray the cost of the medicines The Clinic dispenses—proof that compassion does have the power to change the way health care is provided.
Stuart holds degrees from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, the University of British Columbia School of Medicine, and Oxford University, and was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University. She founded The Clinic after 25 years in private practice. Stuart has been widely recognized for her contributions to health care by local, national, and international media. She has been featured on CNN, the Today Show, Voice of America – the Chinese edition, and in People Magazine. In 2012 she received the American Medical Association Foundation Excellence in Medicine Award and the Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award in 2010.
