Dear Fishers Island Community Member,

Great News from Island Health Project!

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Lauren Davis has been hired to be the Island Physician.

Dr. Davis is board certified in family medicine and urgent care and has been most recently practicing in New Jersey. She and her husband, Craig, also a physician, have two sons who will be enrolled at the Fishers Island School this Fall, and they are expecting their third child in November.

Dr. Davis’ official start date is August 15th. The Doctor’s Office will continue with visiting physicians until that date. As always, please call the Doctor’s Office for an appointment if needed. Please view Fishersisland.net or the IHP website for the schedule of visiting physician names and dates.

Island Health Project is excited to introduce Dr. Davis and her family to the Fishers Island community with plenty more information to follow very soon!

Diane Baker
Chair, Board of Directors

Lauren Davis, DO, FMCP-M

Dr. Lauren Davis brings a combination of primary care knowledge, urgent care experience, and functional medicine depth to her role on Fishers Island. She is triple board-certified in Family Medicine, Osteopathic Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine, and Functional Medicine, and is a graduate of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona through their integrative medicine in residency program.

Dr. Davis earned her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine from Lincoln Memorial University’s DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine, where she was selected as an undergraduate fellow through the National Undergraduate Fellows Association (NUFA), teaching anatomy and osteopathic manipulation to second-year medical students. She also served as the NUFA representative of LMU to the National Council.

She completed her residency training at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital in Southampton, New York, in an integrated program combining Family Medicine and Osteopathic Neuromuscular Medicine, where she served as Chief Resident and Vice Chair of the National Resident Council of the American Osteopathic Association.

Following residency, Dr. Davis spent two and a half years providing frontline urgent care during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, managing high-acuity, high-volume presentations across a broad patient population. At the end of the pandemic, Dr. Davis went into private practice in Southern New Jersey.

Currently in her practice, Dr. Davis provides concierge care in home across the Jersey Shore and virtually, with a focus on maternal and infant health, complex multi-system conditions, and neurodivergent heath in children and adults. Her osteopathic training adds a hands-on, structural dimension to her assessments, while her functional medicine background allows her to look beyond surface-level symptoms to identify root causes that standard workups often miss. She has particular expertise in mast cell activation, connective tissue disorders, dysautonomia, Lyme disease, and neurodivergence.

That clinical focus is rooted in something personal. After her own postpartum recovery, Dr. Davis recognized a striking parallel to what she had learned as a collegiate athlete: that true recovery is not passive, it is a structured, physiological process that demands the same rigor as performance preparation. That insight became the foundation of her practice, and ultimately prompted her to author Thrive, Mama! The Ultimate Postpartum Blueprint and develop educational courses designed to fill the gap she had lived through herself.

Dr. Davis also serves as a content creator for McGraw Hill’s Boards and Beyond platform, where she develops osteopathic medical education resources for students preparing for board examinations, extending her teaching mission to the next generation of physicians.

Dr. Davis believes that good medicine begins with being genuinely known by your physician. On an island where access to specialized care requires planning, she is committed to providing continuity, clinical thoroughness, and responsive care that her patients can rely on year-round.

Before medicine, Dr. Davis was a Division III All-American pitcher and ESPN Pitcher of the Year at Ursinus College, a background that shaped her precision, resilience, and commitment to performance at every level. She brings that same standard to the care she provides her patients.

At the end of 2024, the IHP Board voted unanimously to establish a Strategic Planning Committee to look at all aspects of the way we provide healthcare on Fishers Island. Our goal is to make sure we are doing the best job possible AND that we will be able to continue to do so into the foreseeable future.

In February, a five-member committee was appointed and immediately got to work searching for an outside consultant to guide us in our efforts. The Committee received proposals from five different firms and after careful deliberation, hired Stephen Pratt, President of Impact Catalysts, a Massachusetts-based firm that specializes in working with non-profits. Steve has extensive experience working with various types of medical organizations all over the country. He has family roots in the New London area and is familiar with Fishers Island.

Steve has already begun working with the Strategic Planning Committee to conduct a thorough review of all aspects of IHP’s operations, including organizational structure, staffing, management and governance practices, as well as financial history. To this end, he will be examining the practices of healthcare providers in similar environments, particularly including comparable small islands and isolated rural communities.

One of the most important aspects of this process will be gathering stakeholder input. In other words, we want to hear from YOU!

• What do you think about IHP’s current operations?
• What changes would you like to see?
• Are there aspects of healthcare that you would like to see added to our current offerings?

To gather this information, Steve will be organizing focus groups and a community survey during the early summer months. The mission of IHP is to provide quality healthcare to all members of the Fishers Island community, but we need your feedback to make that happen. We want to hear from everyone; summer visitors as well as year-round residents and other island organizations.

We look forward to partnering together!

We are excited to launch a new seasonal newsletter for IHP! Use this link to join our mailing list and stay up-to-date with IHP news and events throughout the year:

or Scan the QR code below

We can’t wait to connect with you!

Stay connected with IHP on social media!
@islandhealthproject

• Facebook
• Instagram

The Island Health Project would like the island community to be aware of recent policy changes that impact the families of persons who pass away while on the Island.

It has come to our attention that the New York State Department of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics requires a “Burial-Transit Permit” for bodies to be transported across state lines. In this case from New York to Connecticut. The family must complete a Biographical Data Sheet (BDS) (accessible through this link and the link button below) for the IHP to apply for the Burial-Transit Permit.  

Any person who passes on Fishers Island will require this document to be completed and then processed by the Suffolk County town clerk before their body can be transported to a funeral home in Connecticut. If this document is not completed, the deceased will have to remain in their home, supervised by the family, until Suffolk County comes to collect them. Their body, in this case, would be transferred to Long Island rather than to a nearby Connecticut funeral home.

The IHP is encouraging everyone in our Fishers Island community – island residents and seasonal residents alike – to take a few minutes to complete this BDS form.

You may access and print the document from the blue link above and below although it is also available at the IHP Office.

In addition to using this information to obtain the Burial-Transit Permit, these are the very questions that a funeral home needs answered to complete a death certificate.

Once your BDS is complete and returned to IHP, the information will be uploaded into EPIC, Yale Healthcare’s electronic medical records system, and securely stored. The information will then be accessible to us should it become necessary. The hard copy will be shredded.

Again, please take the time now to complete this form for yourself and members of your household. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Best,

Kapri Thomas, BSN, RN, EMT

Island Health Project

Fishers Island, NY

Save the Date!

The 52nd H.O.G. Tournament will be held at the Fishers Island Club to benefit the Island Health Project. Net proceeds from the tournament support medical care for all Fishers Island residents and visitors.

Chairs – Taylor & Lizzie Boswell
Like last year :

• Teams of six men, women, or co-ed are encouraged to dress up and have fun, with two Island residents on each team!
• Brunch (ONLY for H.O.G. Tournament golfers)

Please contact the FIC Golf Shop (631) 788-7223, after August 1st, for more player information and to sign up your team!