Background
Dartmouth Medical School is the fourth-oldest medical school in the United States. After 200 years, this school, with over 300 students, remains a center of excellence for physician and medical scientist training.
Dartmouth Medical School and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), the sole academic medical center in this rural state and one of the few in northern New England, possess a character reflective of the region, a set of unique strengths, and the ability to influence health care in ways not always possible in other geographic settings.
The Hitchcock Clinic is a multi-specialty group practice. Formed originally by five doctors in Hanover in 1927, the clinic now includes a growing network of primary care and specialty physicians with more than 60 sites in New Hampshire and Vermont. Clinic physicians at DHMC in Lebanon, NH, constitute the major component of clinical faculty at Dartmouth Medical School.
The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology includes physicians and other healthcare providers at the DHMC campus in Lebanon and at Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in Nashua, and Hitchcock clinic sites in Concord, Manchester, and Keene, NH. Long before the current flurry of "buzzwords" and mandates, our department was a leader in developing collaborative models of practice. Physicians, nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners work side by side and enjoy mature, collegial relationships.
Outreach programs and regionalized healthcare systems are second nature to us
Our geographic location and the institution's commitment to the use of computer technology since the 1970s have served as forces in the development of outreach clinics in underserved areas throughout the region and the development of programs like the Northern New England Perinatal Quality Improvement Network (NNEPQIN). NNEPQIN is a multi-hospital, regionally-focused quality improvement organization whose goal is to improve perinatal outcomes in Northern New England by collecting and analyzing data regarding patient care and safety, developing best practice guidelines, and providing a forum for interaction and collaboration among hospitals in our area. This innovative organization also provides continuing medical education to many of the obstetrical providers in the region.
Clinical experience in both rural and urban settings
We are fortunate to have the staff of Southern New Hampshire Medical Center join our teaching efforts to provide substantial experience in a more urban environment where residents gain exposure to a diverse patient population in a busy community practice of obstetrics and gynecology. By the conclusion of the program, residents have exposure to a variety of practice styles, sizes, and locations which surely assist with further career decisions.
Outcomes research was born at Dartmouth and is alive and well in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice (TDI) is a dynamic force within Dartmouth College, dedicated to improving health care through education, research, policy reform, leadership improvement, and communication with patients and the public. Many of our faculty members have received advanced degrees within TDI and work daily on health care quality, cost savings, shared medical decision making, and innovative approaches to patient care.
