Thom Walsh, PhD

About Thom Walsh, PhD

Thom Walsh, PhD is the author of Finding What Matters Most to Patients (2019) and Navigating to Value in Healthcare (2017). He is an Adjunct Professor at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, an Associate Professor of Community Medicine at the Oxley College of Health Sciences at the University of Tulsa, and an independent consultant. 
 
His career began as a Physical Therapist with board certification as an Orthopedic Clinical Specialist and sub-specialty training as a spine specialist. His clinical career spanned private practice and academic settings, including the development and launch of a multidisciplinary spine center at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Throughout that time, he was particularly interested in researching patient outcomes and the systems, processes, skills, and policies needed to continually improve them. These interests led him to earn an MS in Clinical Evaluative Sciences and a PhD in Health Policy from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.
 
Known as an excellent teacher and mentor, he draws on his clinical, research, and consulting experience to help people and organizations navigate a rapidly changing healthcare environment. Thom’s peer-reviewed and general audience articles on patient-reported outcomes, shared decision making, change management and leadership have appeared in numerous publications, including the BMJ, JAMA, Spine, The Journal of Healthcare Management, Forbes, The New America Foundation, and The Atlantic. In addition, Thom’s career was featured in the September 3, 2018 edition of Managed Care.
 
He enjoys hiking, running, cycling, reading, and he volunteers as a search and rescue specialist as well as with Team Rubicon, a disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization.