Avital Fischer, MD PhD

Dr. Fischer is a unwavering advocate of personalized healthcare and using evidence-based practice applied to the individual. She realizes that while many people may respond well to a certain treatment, people are more than statistics and wants to understand you, your preferences, strengthens and goals for improvement. She believes in a positive psychiatric approach to help you focus on your positive attributes and help you be successful in the changes you would like to achieve. Dr. Fischer completed her BSc in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she also completed a minor in brain and cognitive sciences. She then proceeded to complete her MD and PhD at the University of California Irvine. Her dissertation focused on the role of life event stress in breast cancer risk. Her work recognizes the importance of perceived stress in how stress influences disease. She completed her residency training in the psychiatry program at Stanford University. She continues to do research at Stanford and is a Clinical Scholar there. Her research focuses on predictors of loneliness in women in the Women’s health initiative, physician wellness through her work with WellMD, and post- traumatic stress growth in the Israeli population. "I became a psychiatrist because I love people and biology. Your stories and the ability to help you are what make this work so fulfilling. Luckily, we are at a point in history where we appreciate the multifactorial contributors to mental health. We know that mental health is influenced by our genetics, biology, psychology and environment. Thankfully we have treatments that can be tailored to the individual based on understanding the interplay of all these factors. I am excited to get to know you and help you in this formative process called life." ~Dr. Fischer