UNIVERSITY Robert goldstein discusses time at Tufts, Mass. public health priorities as he takes dPh reins

by Peri Barest News Editor

Kate Walsh, Massachusetts secretary of health and human services, appointed triple-Jumbo Robert Goldstein (LA’05, M’12, GBS’12) as the state’s commissioner of public health on April 4. Goldstein’s time working with the Sharewood Clinic as an undergraduate and medical student shaped his commitment to helping underserved communities access medical care, he told the Daily a week into his tenure.

While Goldstein knew from the start that he wanted to be a physician and was involved in the pre-medical society on campus, it was his time working at the Sharewood Clinic that introduced him to the power of public health. Project Sharewood has been providing free health care services to residents of Boston and Malden since 1997 and is staffed entirely by volunteer physicians, medical students and undergraduate students. When Goldstein started volunteering, Massachusetts did not have universal health care, and the clinic provided services to refugees, immigrants and people without health insurance.

“Sharewood was one of the greatest opportunities because as an undergraduate I could sit with patients for a long time and listen,” Goldstein said. “What was very clear to me is that those that I wanted to care for were those that were most marginalized in our community, faced the biggest barriers and had the greatest struggles in accessing care. For me in the beginning, and still, a lot of that care revolved around those living with HIV and at risk for HIV. It started me on a career path towards infectious diseases and HIV management — that work is public health.”

Goldstein continued working with the clinic during medical school, during which time he was a proponent of HIV and STI testing services. After graduating from medical school with an M.D. and a doctorate in 2012, Goldstein went on to complete his residency and fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. He served as chief resident and later became faculty in infectious disease at the hospital.

When he was working at MGH, Goldstein realized that the transgender community was at greatest risk for HIV. He helped found the hospital’s Transgender Health Program in 2018 and served as its medical director.

“I realized if I really wanted to have an impact on HIV and the epidemic, I had to train myself to provide gender-affirming care and to welcome folks into clinic so that they could access prevention services and treatment services,” he said. “Really what I was doing was lifting up the work of so many others — trans, nonbinary folks, people who had family members who are trans and nonbinary and people who are really committed and engaged with the community.”

Marjory Bravard (M’10), who was friends with Goldstein during medical school and worked at MGH at the same time, recalls Goldstein championing a bed policy for transgender patients.

“Mass General has shared rooms — a good 70–80% of the rooms are shared rooms — and so there became a concern where [staff] were not sure … what to do with transgender folks. And it was leading to not only delays, but uncomfortable questions for patients,” she said. “We went through a formal process of coming up with the policy that see GOLDSTEIN, page 19