In November 2023, the Generalist Firm at Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) was renamed the Laura Whitman Firm in memory of Laura Whitman, MD. Whitman was a highly regarded clinician, mentor, and leader at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) who died on January 13, 2023, after a long illness.

A Home for Patients

Staffed by faculty from the Section of General Internal Medicine, the Generalist Firm was established over two decades ago and originally intended to serve as a home for Yale Primary Care Center patients admitted to YNHH.

At Yale, a firm is typically an inpatient entity consisting of a physical location inside YNHH overseen by a team of attending physicians, residents, and medical students, explains Patrick O’Connor, MD, MPH, Dan Adams and Amanda Adams Professor of General Medicine and chief of the Section of General Internal Medicine at YSM. The Whitman Firm currently shares a 34-bed unit with the Hospital Medicine Firm.

“The original concept behind the firm was that when patients in our clinic are admitted to YNHH, instead of being dispersed all over the hospital, they would be centralized in a place where the people who provide care for them can get to know them, ensuring a smooth transition from the outpatient setting to the inpatient setting and back to the outpatient setting,” he said. “The firm was also designed to provide continuity for trainees and residents, who are assigned to work with a specific attending physician and care for a group of patients—some of whom go in and out of the hospital—during the three years of their residency.”

Research shows that safety and quality of care increases when patients are localized in a hospital ward, adds Gretchen Berland, MD, professor of medicine (general internal medicine), who, with O’Connor, leads the Whitman Firm. “Over time, the team of doctors and resident physicians who care for patients on a specific floor develop a philosophy and focus on trying to promote health equity during an inpatient admission,” she said.

This infrastructure also improves the care of an underserved patient population with complex medical and social needs, O’Connor added. The firm’s educational curriculum also focuses on promoting health equity and reducing barriers to access to care, core principles of Whitman’s life and career.

“Many of the patients admitted to our firm are there because of untreated chronic diseases due to health care disparities, and she believed in trying to make their lives better,” Berland said.

The Consummate Doctor’s Doctor

After Whitman died, YSM colleagues and friends formed a committee to identify ways to honor her legacy. Given Whitman’s in-depth knowledge, strong leadership, fierce advocacy, and wise counsel, renaming the firm in her honor seemed like a natural fit, Berland said.

“It is an appropriate recognition for someone who dedicated her professional identity and career to educating residents and caring for vulnerable, underserved patients,” she said. “Even after her diagnosis, she would go to her own appointments in the morning and then return to see her patients in the afternoon.”

O’Connor describes Whitman as the consummate doctor’s doctor, an incredible clinician and clinical role model who faculty and trainees turned to for advice on how to best care for patients. “She knew how to effectively marry the missions of patient care and education for this particular patient population in a tremendous way,” he said.

Whitman is the first woman in the Department of Internal Medicine to have a firm named after her, Berland added. “During firm orientation every two weeks, I get to talk about who she was and her belief in the power of advocacy and agency for our patients,” she said. “I’m glad we found a way for her legacy and impact to be recognized by future generations.”

Innovations in Education

Whitman served as the associate program director for ambulatory education for the Internal Medicine Traditional Residency from 2004–2013 before becoming medical director of the Primary Care Center at YNHH and then medical director of the New Haven Primary Care Consortium. She was the founding editor of the Yale Office-Based Medicine Curriculum, one of the most widely used ambulatory medicine curricula in the country.

Working with Whitman at the Primary Care Center was an invaluable learning experience—as well as an honor and a privilege—for clinical fellows like Kimberly Glerum, MD, who is pursuing a career in geriatrics. “I aspire to practice medicine with as much compassion and grace as Dr. Whitman,” she said.

It’s difficult to quantify the impact Whitman had on education at Yale, which was at the heart of her career since she was a chief resident, says Seonaid Hay, MD, associate professor of medicine (general internal medicine).

“She always strove to increase the importance of ambulatory education in the minds of the program and departmental leadership,” Hay said. “Her innovations were tremendously impactful, including implementing block schedules so that residents spent concentrated time in the clinic, and the educational half days, which allowed for innovative teaching methods and presented a rare opportunity for residents to be fully removed from clinical responsibilities to learn.”

An Unforgettable Mentor and Role Model

Whitman profoundly impacted the professional development of many Yale faculty members, including Ilana Richman, MD, MHS, assistant professor of medicine (general internal medicine), who recalls Whitman’s strong moral compass and the example she set as a physician, teacher, and leader.

Whitman had a preternatural ability to connect with people, put them at ease, and make everyone feel valued and heard, Richman recalls.

“Whenever she walked into the room, I thought, ‘Oh good—Laura is here,’” Richman said. “That was the energy she brought. She made every space better.”

When Whitman became ill, Richman added, she chose to spend time with her colleagues, trainees, and patients. “In doing so, she showed us how important our work is and what a privilege it is to do it,” Richman said. “I look back on this with awe, and I realize now that it was a tremendous gift to all of us.”

Whitman advocated for patients until the last moment of her life, said Amerisa Tarabar, MD, assistant professor of medicine (general internal medicine).

“Her humanity, her friendly, practical advice ranging from how to run the clinic to how to deal with teens at home, and her intelligent sense of humor, no matter how hard the situation was, will stay with me forever,” she said.

Whitman could interpret, evaluate, and work through the most challenging problems, Hay added. “Her approach was always logical and imbued with her perceiving everyone involved in the best possible light,” she said.

Like many, Hay has striven to be like Whitman since they first met.

“Her commitment to the causes that were important to her, serving the vulnerable population of New Haven and promoting primary care education, as well as her attributes of being a voice of reason and kindness in even the most trying circumstances, have been guideposts to me for the past two decades,” Hay said. “I am so happy her legacy lives on in the Whitman Firm, continuing to influence residents and students.”

General Internal Medicine is committed to the core missions of patient care, research, education, and community health from the “generalist” perspective and is one of the 11 sections within Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Internal Medicine. To learn more, visit General Internal Medicine.