Sarah Follman

Sarah joins the Yale community after completing her Emergency Medicine Residency at the University of Chicago. She received her medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wellesley College where she majored in Economics and Psychology.

Dr. Follman is driven to explore more effective care for patients with psychiatric emergencies and substance use disorders while also addressing other pressing issues in the context of evolving social and political forces. She is interested to consider ways in which system improvements and innovative technologies can improve health outcomes and address psychological and socioeconomic determinants of health. Her aim is to promote care paradigms that are value-based while also mitigating care disparities.

To date Dr. Follman’s work has centered around addiction medicine and value-based healthcare. As a medical student, Dr. Follman piloted an opioid overdose education and naloxone distribution protocol in the University of Chicago’s Adult Emergency Department, which received grant funding from the Portes Foundation / Institute of Medicine Chicago (IOMC). In conjunction with this intervention, her team developed a curricular innovation for medical students featuring didactics on addiction medicine and harm reduction, which was recognized with the Association of American Medical College’s Curricular Innovation Award. During residency, she was awarded grant funding from the Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) to pilot a new curriculum for residents with the aim of addressing stigma toward patients with substance use disorders. During her training, she also worked to develop medical education curricula on the topic of cost-effective healthcare, reducing waste, and addressing systemic issues to optimize quality of care and patient safety.