Dr. Mary Lyster is accepting new patients at Lamprey Health Care in Nashua. Courtesy photo/Dartmouth College

NASHUA – Having provided medical care to patients as far away as Tanzania and Panama, Dr. Mary Lyster recently announced that she has joined the ranks at Lamprey Health Care in Nashua.

“Medicine uses more of me than any other job,” said Lyster, adding that she fell in love with the medical profession when she was 8 years old.

In 2021, Lyster made her first trip to Tanzania. Despite four decades as a doctor, she still encountered a learning curve.

“I had to learn about parasitic infections that I don’t see in the United States,” she said.

Lyster has also been to Panama four times as part of Floating Doctors, a nonprofit organization which provides free medical services to patients on 30 islands in the Caribbean Sea.

“We go everywhere by boat,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to do it, I’ve always loved to travel.”

Lyster also said the U.S. is not alone in medical advances.

“There is extraordinary health care in countries you wouldn’t expect,” she said. “I’ve never been in a situation where I couldn’t treat a patient.”

Lyster is now planning a trip to Senegal in the coming months.

“Nonprofit health care is my passion,” she said.

In addition to her work with Floating Doctors, Lyster was an assistant professor in the Medicine Department at Brown University before moving to New Hampshire three years ago. After relocating to the Granite State, she accepted a position as a clinical assistant professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College.

Lyster said she heard about Lamprey from a colleague who spent his entire career at the Raymond campus.

“Lamprey has a particular warmth,” she said. “They really walk the talk.”

Lyster also lauded the organization for its tremendous community outreach efforts.

“Lamprey is a health center without walls,” she said.

Fluent in Spanish and French, Lyster is at the Nashua campus two days a week. She is also part of Lamprey’s InteGreat program, which fuses primary care with behavioral health.