Cooley Dickinson Welcomes New Primary-care Physician, Orthopedic Surgeon

AMHERST and WEST HATFIELD — Cooley Dickinson Health Care recently welcomed two of its newest physicians, primary-care physician Dr. Joanne Chan and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Benjamin Snyder.

Chan joins Amherst Medical Associates at 170 University Dr. in Amherst. She earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science that brought her initially to Wall Street, where she worked for several years in the financial industry before making the decision to pursue a career in medicine. She attended the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry in Rochester, N.Y., and then stayed to complete a residency in family medicine.

Chan has worked in many different medical settings, from community health centers to private practice to urgent care. She has treated patients at a walk-in, acute illness and injury clinic for adults and children in San Francisco, held positions in state- and federally funded clinics that provide care for low-income and other underserved populations, and worked as a primary-care provider for the male inmate population of a California state prison.

She is now accepting new patients. For more information, visit the Amherst Medical Associates webpage or call (413) 549-7080.

Snyder has joined the Cooley Dickinson Medical Group Orthopedics & Sports Medicine practice in West Hatfield and Amherst. He performs orthopedic surgery at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, including joint-replacement surgeries at Cooley Dickinson’s Joint Replacement Center. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in bioengineering from Penn State University, where he focused on biomechanics. After a brief stint working as a biomedical engineer, he entered medical school at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and graduated in 2010 with doctor of medicine and master of public health degrees, focusing on clinical research, quality improvement, and shared decision making.

Snyder completed his internship and residency in orthopedic surgery at UMass Medical School in Worcester, where he also pursued a one-year orthopedic-surgery research fellowship focusing on hip- and knee-replacement surgery. Following residency, he completed a joint-replacement/adult-reconstruction fellowship at Stanford University in California, where he worked as a clinical instructor at both Stanford Hospital and Palo Alto VA Hospital.

Prior to joining Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Snyder worked as an orthopedic surgeon in both academic medicine (Geisel School of Medicine/Dartmouth-Hitchcock) and private practice in Plymouth.