Justin Lafreniere M.D.

Education

EDUCATION
August 1997 - May 2001 Bachelor of Science in Biology, Trinity College, Hartford, CT
August 2003 - May 2007 Doctor of Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA

POST GRADUATE EDUCATION
June 2007 - June 2010 Internship & Residency, Department of Internal Medicine, Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, VA
July 2011 – June 2013 Fellowship, General Internal Medicine, Medical Education, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, MD

Biography

Dr. Lafreniere was born and raised in Poland Springs, Maine and earned his undergraduate degree in biology from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut in 2001. He became a native son of New Orleans, Louisiana while earning his medical degree from Tulane University from 2003-2007 on a Health Professions Scholarship from the U.S. Navy. He completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth. After graduating from the program in 2010, he served as the Chief of Residents in that department before beginning a General Internal Medicine fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in 2011. During his two years at Hopkins, Dr. Lafreniere developed an expertise in medical education focused on curriculum development, learner-centered teaching skills, and faculty development. Additionally, he served for a year as an Associate Program Director in the Johns Hopkins Bayview Internal Medicine Residency Training Program before returning to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth as an Associate Program Director in 2013. He became Program Director in June 2017.

He practices primarily inpatient General Internal Medicine and is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, is a fellow in the American College of Physicians and is a member of the Society of General Internal Medicine and the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine. Nationally, he serves as a reviewer for the Society of General Internal Medicine Annual Meeting. Locally, he is a member of Governor’s Council of the Virginia Chapter of the American College of Physicians and the command’s Graduate Medical & Dental Education Committee. His teaching abilities have been recognized with awards from both physicians and nurses in training.

Dr. Lafreniere has published research on burnout in resident physicians and its impact on the doctor-patient relationship. He has given multiple, national presentations on topics to include: burnout in academic medicine, the use of experiential and interprofessional learning strategies to teach issues related to transitions of care, and the use of online learning platforms in medical education. His other academic interests include patient-centered care & bedside rounds, mentoring and role modeling, and faculty development.

Career Highlights: Positions, Projects, Deployements, Awards and Additional Publications

Associate Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency Program, Naval Medical Center Portsmouth 2013-2017

A retrospective analysis of patients admitted at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth for Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome (AWS). Are we admitting too many patients? Primary Investigator: Tyler House, D.O., Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, VA. 2016-present

Validation of a nomogram to predict the probability of passing the American Board of Internal Medicine in military internal medicine trainees. Primary Investigator: Benjamin Vipler, M.D., Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, VA. 2017-present

The Transitions of Care Curriculum (TOCC): A Project to Implement and Evaluate the TOCC to Improve the Quality of Resident Physician Education and Enhance the Safety of Care Transitions for Patients Admitted to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. 2013-2014

DeCherrie, L; Kinosian, B; Lafreniere, JP; Miller, RK; Soriano, TA; Whitehouse, CR. Teaching Transitions of Care through Home Visits. Society of General Internal Medicine, Annual Meeting, May 2012.

Harrison, RA; Andre, C; Centor, RM; Lafreniere, JP; Leykum, LK; Southern, W. Finding Life-Work Balance in Academic Hospital Medicine. Society of General Internal Medicine, Annual Meeting, May 2012.

Hooper AB, Cole J, Gao S, Lafreniere JP. Technology & Innovation: How to Create an Online Educational Platform. Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine, Skills Development Conference, October 2016.

Representative Bibliography

Lafreniere JP, Rios R, Packer H, Ghazarian S, Wright SM, Levine RB. Burned Out at the Bedside: Patient Perceptions of Physician Burnout in an Internal Medicine Resident Continuity Clinic. J Gen Intern Med. 2016 Feb;31(2):203-8.

Sheikh F, Bellantoni M, Christmas C, Gathecha E, Lafreniere J, Arbaje AI. A Call to Bridge Silos in Care Transitions. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. (in press)