Thom Walsh, PhD, MS

Professor of the Practice

Thom Walsh, PhD, MS, is a Professor of the Practice at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, teaching at the Geisel School of Medicine and the Tuck School of Business. He also serves as a member of Vermont’s Green Mountain Care Board, the state’s independent health care regulatory agency.

Dr. Walsh’s work centers on the design and oversight of affordable, accountable, and ethically grounded health systems. He brings two decades of experience as a clinician, educator, entrepreneur, and policy leader to his teaching, regulatory work, and national commentary. His research and public writing emphasize operational trust, system design, and leadership accountability in healthcare.

He is the former co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Cardinal Point Healthcare Solutions, a national consulting agency focused on aligning strategy, quality, and operations. His leadership and curriculum development efforts extend nationally, particularly in the areas of executive education and AI-assisted decision-making for public leaders and health system executives. Earlier in his career, Dr. Walsh practiced as a spine physical therapist and quality improvement researcher. He holds a PhD in Health Policy from Dartmouth and an MS in Evaluative Clinical Sciences. He earned his clinical degrees in Physical Therapy from D’Youville University.

Dr. Walsh is a first-generation college graduate who has published extensively in both peer-reviewed journals and national outlets. His writing has appeared in Milbank Quarterly, Washington Monthly, The American Prospect, The Atlantic, and Forbes. He is the author of two books—Navigating to Value in Healthcare and Finding What Matters Most to Patients—and has served as an advisor to hospital systems, regulatory agencies, and philanthropic organizations.

Dr. Walsh is actively exploring the use of AI-assisted workflows in professional settings, with a focus on how large language models can support regulatory review, policy development, and executive decision-making. His work in this area is shaping a new approach to teaching, writing, and public leadership grounded in responsible AI use.