Dr. Van Besien is an Emergency Medicine resident physician at Boston Medical Center, the largest trauma and emergency center in New England and home to the Grayken Center for Addiction. Dr. Van Besien serves on the front line in the Emergency Room, treating patients suffering substance use disorders as well as conversing with the programs and services in place that best support patients and their families.

Though early in her career, Dr. Van Besien has been recognized as a champion of Addiction Medicine and Humanism in Medicine. She has been involved in multiple research projects related to medication-assisted treatment initiation in the Emergency Department and is currently working with the Department of Emergency Medicine to bring harm reduction resources directly to the Emergency Room. She is also working to develop a curriculum for resident physicians about harm reduction and utilization of methadone and suboxone in the Emergency Department. She was selected to the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association Leadership Academy (2022-2023), and was the recipient of American College of Emergency Physicians Medical Student Professionalism and Leadership Award (2022) and Robert R. Roberts Award for one fourth year student of the Gold Humanism Honor Society who combines humanism with the clinical study of Medicine and exhibits compassion towards patients at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (2022).

Dr. Van Besien holds a BA from the University of Virginia and received her MD from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She is currently in her residency in Emergency Medicine at Boston Medical Center.