Twenty-five years ago, Javier Lopez, MD ’05, RES ’09, felt stressed and struggled emotionally as a first-year medical student at Yale School of Medicine (YSM). Although he had support from his large extended family and the close-knit Cuban American community in Miami, where he had lived all his life, Lopez found the adjustment difficult. He experienced bouts of severe depression that led him to seek psychiatric care.
Looking back now, he counts himself lucky to have chosen YSM. Few medical schools are as nurturing and supportive of their students as YSM. For Lopez, the culture on Cedar Street was very different from the grind-’em-out, survival-of-the-fittest environment that is a stereotype of medical training.
“It shaped me for years to come because I wasn't taught in an environment that was dogmatic and militaristic and draconian in any way, which is really what we think of historically when we think of medical training,” he says. “We talk about these things now, but 25 years ago, it was pioneering to talk about burnout and have physician well-being at the forefront. Nowadays, that's just common conversation. It's a normal part of understanding our workforce.”
Physician wellness is central to his current role as an executive with Envision Physician Services, a company that provides consulting and staffing services for hospitals in 19 states. As senior vice president, he has led efforts to promote mental health and reduce burnout among physicians and other caregivers, working to bring these issues into the open.
That includes expanding access to confidential mental health resources and peer support, as well as making changes to scheduling and workflows to try to reduce some of the day-to-day pressures clinicians face. There has also been more emphasis on education—helping clinicians and leaders recognize burnout earlier and creating a culture where it is acceptable to talk about it and seek support.
“In terms of impact, I think the biggest change has been cultural,” says Lopez, who is one of a panel of alumni who will be on hand to share their experiences of YSM at a gathering of admitted and other premedical students on April 22 in Miami. “There’s definitely more openness around these conversations than there used to be, and more people are actually using the resources that are available. It’s still an ongoing challenge, but these efforts are helping move things in the right direction, especially when it comes to engagement and making clinicians feel supported rather than isolated.”
The importance of this approach became especially clear in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, when emergency room physicians such as Lorna Breen, MD, faced overwhelming pressure and were unable to save many of their patients or help their fellow clinicians.
Breen, who led the emergency department at a small hospital in the Columbia-Presbyterian system in New York City, died by suicide in April 2020 after a sudden and devastating depression. Her story led to passage in 2022 of the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act and $135 million for grants to train staff, promote mental health, and launch awareness campaigns to reduce stigma. Before the act was reauthorized in February 2026, Lopez was part of a group of Florida physicians who traveled to Washington to lobby for its renewal.
Lopez credits former YSM Associate Dean for Student Affairs Nancy Angoff, MPH ’81, MD ’90, for creating an environment that would help students overcome mental health challenges like the ones he experienced at the start of medical school. Under her leadership beginning in the late 1990s, YSM adopted a supportive approach and provided resources during times of crisis.
“We were asking people to go into a caring profession, and it really was an obligation to provide a caring environment for them to learn how to be caring people,” Angoff says today. “The old model of medicine with a little bit of bullying doesn't really help people become caregivers. So, what is it that they need?”
Angoff built a strong relationship with Yale’s student mental health center, made it easier for students to take time off for appointments, and, with the help of alumni, established an emergency fund to help cash-strapped students in high-stress situations—for example, to facilitate a student returning home for the death of a parent across the country or on another continent.
Lopez’s years at YSM—first as a medical student and later as a resident in anesthesia—also influenced him in other ways. He learned from faculty members whom he describes as leaders in their fields. Among them were Peter Schwartz, MD, who served as his thesis advisor on a project to predict the risk of recurrence of ovarian cancer. Another was Robert Malison, MD ’87, with whom he conducted research on cocaine addiction. In addition, he credits Paul Barash, MD, for greatly influencing his decision to become an anesthesiologist.
The common thread was the Yale System of medical education, which encouraged curiosity, self-directed learning, and a focus on the patient. It was, he says, “an environment that was just so thoroughly interconnected with the patient at the forefront. … There's a network of clinical excellence that once you tap into it, it's pretty amazing. And I certainly did not overlook for a second that I was given an incredible gift to be there.”
After residency, a confluence of factors brought Lopez back to Miami. “I was going to stay at Yale. That was my plan. But what brought me back home was, of course, I met my wife.” Lopez’s sister and the mother of his future wife set them up at a birthday party. “That's how we met, and that changed everything for me.” Around the same time, two close family members received serious diagnoses, and he wanted to be near them. “I had a lot of reasons to come back down to Miami.”
After working for a year in an anesthesia practice north of Miami, Lopez received a job offer at Kendall Regional Medical Center, just two miles from where he grew up. He served as chief of anesthesia there for nine years and as the hospital’s chief of staff for two years before he was recruited to his current role at Envision in 2024.
As senior vice president, Lopez manages business, operational, and clinical contracts for 78 hospitals and surgery centers in Florida and Tennessee. He still works one day a week in the operating room as an attending anesthesiologist. He also finds time to fit in two trips each year to the Dominican Republic, where he and a team of doctors provide surgical care to pediatric patients who are born with congenital malformations and other issues.
It makes for a busy life. But Lopez makes a point of balancing the demands of his profession and his other pursuits, especially time spent with family. He and his wife, Barbie, have two daughters, ages 11 and 12, and just celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary.
During medical school, he says, “I really gained a stronger appreciation, as a part of my own personal growth and journey, for well-being in general and making sure that we make it a point to take care of ourselves, biologically, physically, and emotionally. Taking care of our relationships professionally and personally, these things are incredibly important.”