Dr. O'Brien is Medical Director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at South Shore Health. 

As a Maternal-Fetal Medicine physician, I am dedicated to caring for women and families navigating high-risk and medically complex pregnancies with expertise, compassion, and individualized attention. 

I strive to integrate evidence-based medicine with a holistic approach that recognizes the physical, emotional, and social factors that shape each patient’s experience. 

I am also committed to advocating for equitable healthcare and improving access and outcomes for marginalized and underserved communities.

My goal is to provide compassionate and equitable medical care to patients seeking care for breast-related concerns, including but not limited to breast lumps, abnormal screening mammograms, benign breast masses, and previous or current breast cancer diagnoses. 

I am a graduate of the Tufts University School of Medicine Physician Assistant and Masters in Public Health dual degree program. I have been working at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Brigham & Women’s Hospital Division of Breast Surgery since June 2021.

It is my priority to provide care to patients that is skilled and supportive. I strive to accommodate a patient’s unique and individual needs such that all patients feel cared for and well-informed. I have professional interests in patient-oriented outcomes research and have studied coping and psychosocial wellbeing among adolescents and young adults with cancer. I am originally from Western Massachusetts, and my hobbies include hiking, skiing, and spending with family, friends, and my dog.  

My philosophy is to develop an ongoing patient-physician relationship focused on comprehensive health care incorporating preventative care, chronic disease management, and treatment of acute illnesses and injuries.

As a family doctor, I am dedicated to treating the whole person. I aim to develop long-term relationships to understand each patient, and to provide continuing health care for the individual and family. I integrate care for patients of all genders and every age from newborns to seniors, and I advocate for the patient in our complex health care system. I have had the fortune to work as a general practitioner in New Zealand which allowed me to gain insight into alternative health care systems and approaches to preventative care and disease management. Outside of work, I enjoy traveling, cooking, and reading.

I graduated from Colegio Nacional de San Isidro in Buenos Aires, Argentina and completed my medical degree at Buenos Aires University School of Medicine. My surgical and urological residency were spent at the Hospital Italiano in Buenos Aires. I was an attending Urologist at Hospital Roffo in Buenos Aires until I came to the United States. At that point I was a Urology Fellow working on a research project at the Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. I completed my American residencies in urology and surgery at the University of Massachusetts.

I enjoy spending time with my wife and three children.

I grew up on the South Shore and attended Holy Cross for college where my concentration was pre-medical sciences and sleep research. During summers in college I worked as an EMT and following college I worked in a collaborative Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School lab studying allergy and asthma. While at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Lahey Clinic my focus was on primary care internal medicine. In 2006 I was the recipient of the “Patient Care Award” which is Lahey Clinic’s highest physician honor. I joined South Shore Medical Center in 2006.

My philosophy is to provide quality evidence-based women’s healthcare in a setting that fosters mutual respect, shared decision-making and empathy.

At our office visit(s) I will focus on understanding your concerns and work with you to develop a diagnosis and management plan that is evidence-based yet tailored to your needs. You should expect to be treated with kindness, respect and privacy that everyone deserves.  I value your trust and understand that this must be earned.

My ideal day off would include spending time with my family, a good cup of coffee and mountain biking through the woods.  Sitting down for a few minutes to play the piano or guitar brings me joy.   We enjoy weekend trips to the Berkshires, NH and Maine for a change in scenery.

I grew up in a small town in Northern New York, and joined South Shore Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital in 2012. I completed my undergraduate and medical education as well as my general surgical training and surgical critical care fellowship at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY. I am also fellowship trained in minimally invasive and bariatric surgery from Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. I have had a long-standing passion in bariatric and weight-loss surgery and my goal in joining the South Shore Hospital team was to bring that expertise and opportunity to the South Shore community. The hospital has been very supportive in this endeavor and over the past few years we have created a collaborative team of providers from across institutions to start the South Shore Hospital Center for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. As medical director it has been my pleasure to help the program grow into a strong clinical component  of the department of surgery and create more outreach into the community. I am also actively engaged as a trauma surgeon and have a busy general surgery practice taking care of a variety of disease processes including the minimally invasive management of gallbladder disease, hernia, GERD, hiatal hernias, as well as the surgical management of a variety of other gastrointestinal disorders. When I am not working, I enjoy the simple things in life like relaxing by a large campfire or spending the day at the beach with my family. 

My mission is to make my patients feel more at ease and provide excellent care throughout the perioperative process. 

After college I worked on an ambulance and quickly learned that I enjoyed caring for my patients in acute settings.  Similarly as an anesthesiologist, I like the immediate good I can do for people.  What I enjoy most though, is hopefully making people feel less anxious and more emotionally supported through stressful situations.

I completed my Master’s Degree as an Adult Nurse Practitioner at Northeastern University and earned my bachelors of Science degree from The College of the Holy Cross as a Biology Major and Philosophy minor. I worked as a registered nurse at MGH on a cardiac step down unit and then an NP in a busy nursing home practice and in two community health centers. I enjoy being active and spending time outdoors with my husband and two children.