Auguste Fortin

Auguste H. Fortin VI, M.D., M.P.H., is an internist and professor emeritus of medicine at Yale School of Medicine. He directed Communication Skills Education there as well as the Psychosocial Curriculum for the Yale Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency Program. He graduated from Brandeis University and Tufts University School of Medicine and trained in internal medicine/primary care at Bellevue Hospital/NYU Medical Center before serving in the US Navy. He obtained his M.P.H. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health and completed a fellowship in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians (ACP) and a Fellow of the Academy of Communication in Healthcare (ACH), of which he is a past president. He is lead author of Smith’s Patient-Centered Interviewing—an Evidence-Based Method, a major textbook in the field. He is internationally recognized for his educational work to improve clinicians’ communication skills and patients’ experience of care and has delivered communication skills workshops at medical schools and large health systems in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

Professional interests include medical education, clinician-patient communication, the psychosocial aspects of medical care, meaning in medicine, mindfulness, and professional burnout prevention.

In addition to medicine, Dr. Fortin enjoys fatherhood, singing, sailing, flying, and Zen. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his wife, Oi.