HEALTH CARE HEROES 2026 AWARDS
Mental Health Provider/Advocate: Diane Medeiros Gomes, Butler Hospital director of pharmacy
What led you to choose health care as your profession? My parents immigrated to the United States from Portugal in 1972. They felt that we could find job security in health care.
How have you helped boost the quality of or access to health care? Everyone should have access to information about their health. Medication information is challenging to sort through and scary if the diagnosis is new. Being able to supply information and making it relatable and/or understandable for someone is what I try to do.
What is the biggest challenge you and your organization are facing this year? Supplying quality health care, along with financial insecurity due to changes in resources available.
Are you confident patient access and quality of care will improve in Rhode Island over the next five years? Why or why not? With the amount of uncertainty and questionable trust by patients regarding the field of health care, I don’t feel very confident that these will improve.
Tell us one thing that most people don’t know about you. I am a past national president of a pharmaceutical fraternity called Alpha Zeta Omega. I am still active with my local chapter and find mentoring pharmacy students to be very rewarding.