Gail D'Onofrio, MD, MS

Gail D’Onofrio, MD, MS, is the chair of emergency medicine at Yale Medicine. She is internationally known for her work in substance use disorders, women’s cardiovascular health, and mentoring physician scientists in developing independent research careers. For the past 25 years she has developed and tested interventions for alcohol, opioids and other substance use disorders, serving as the principal investigator (PI) on several large NIH, SAMSHA, and CDC studies. Dr. D’Onofrio has a long track record of mentoring junior and senior faculty members both at Yale and throughout the U.S. in multiple specialties. She is the PI of a NIDA K12 establishing the Yale Drug use, Addiction and HIV Research Scholars (Yale-DAHRS) program, a three-year post-doctoral, interdisciplinary, Mentored Career Development Program with focused training in prevention and treatment of drug use, addiction, and HIV in general medical settings. She is a founding Board member of Addiction Medicine, now recognized as a new specialty, subspecialty by the American Board of Medical Specialties.

As the chair of emergency medicine, Dr. D’Onofrio’s goals are to provide medical care for the wide range of people who come through its doors—whether it is resuscitating and stabilizing critically ill or injured patients, or assessing and treating non-emergent illness or injuries. Many patients have little or no access to care and we have special hours “all day, all night, every day.” “Our goals are to take care of the problem and make connections to any services or resources they might need,” says Dr. D’Onofrio.

Dr. D’Onofrio enjoys the fast-paced environment of the emergency department which requires her to gather information and make decisions quickly.to save a life. . “Regardless of the severity of the problem, during almost every shift, you make a huge difference in someone’s life,” she says.