About

Dr. David Lynch is an Associate Professor and clinician-investigator in the Division of Geriatric Medicine at the University of North Carolina. He completed medical school at the University of Limerick in Ireland before coming to UNC, where he completed residency training in Internal Medicine, served as Chief Resident, and completed fellowship training in Geriatric Medicine.

Dr. Lynch serves as Medical Director of Memory Connect, UNC Health’s embedded virtual collaborative dementia care program, and previously served as Medical Director of the Acute Care for Elders (ACE) Unit at UNC Hospitals. His clinical work focuses on the care of older adults with dementia and complex medical needs across outpatient and hospital settings.

For Dr. Lynch, a career in Geriatrics offers the opportunity to care for patients with complex medical, functional, and psychosocial needs while helping patients and families navigate some of the most challenging transitions of later life. His experiences in clinical care continue to shape his research questions and commitment to developing practical solutions that improve care delivery for older adults.

Dr. Lynch’s research focuses on developing scalable, sustainable, and health system-embedded interventions to improve care for people living with dementia. His work emphasizes pragmatic clinical trials, implementation science, and innovative models of dementia care designed to reduce hospital-associated disability and avoidable acute care utilization while supporting patients and caregivers.

He is the recipient of a National Institute on Aging (NIA) K23 Career Development Award focused on developing and testing an intervention to reduce hospital-associated disability in people living with dementia. Dr. Lynch also leads an UNC Aging Initiative Pilot Award to develop and evaluate the feasibility of Memory Connect.