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Dr. Justin Mutter, Co-Founder, Health & Clinical Strategy

Dr. Justin Mutter

MD, MSc

Board-certified geriatrician, Rhodes Scholar, and founder of an award-winning home-based primary care program, dedicated to improving care for older adults living with dementia.

LinkedIn

After two years as a community health worker with Partners in Health in Haiti — where he worked alongside Paul Farmer caring for patients with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis — Justin returned to Virginia to pursue medicine. He earned his MD while completing two master’s degrees at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

Today he leads the geriatrics section at a major academic medical center, where he founded a home-based primary care program that reduced hospitalizations by approximately 80% in its first year. His clinical work focuses on dementia care, complex medication management, and bringing person-centered medical care into the homes of older adults who can no longer easily leave them.

His writing for Alula draws on two decades of work at the intersection of medicine, ethics, and aging — from the mountains of Haiti to the living rooms of central Virginia.

Specialties

Geriatric MedicineDementia & Memory DisordersHome-Based Primary CarePolypharmacy & Medication ManagementFrailty AssessmentFamily MedicineCaregiver SupportMedical HumanitiesPrimary Care PolicyAging & Long-Term Care

Credentials & Background

Education6
  • Fellowship in Geriatric Medicine — University of Virginia
  • Residency in Family Medicine — MAHEC, Asheville, NC
  • MD in Medicine — University of Virginia School of Medicine
  • MSc in History of Science, Medicine & Technology — University of Oxford
  • MSt in Study of Religions — University of Oxford
  • BA in English Literature & Religious Studies — University of Virginia
Publications10
Awards & Honors3
  • Rhodes Scholarship — Rhodes Trust, University of Oxford
  • Pisacano Scholarship — American Board of Family Medicine, 2012
  • Geriatric Academic Career Award (GACA) — Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
Affiliations5
  • Co-Founder & Chief Health Officer — Alula
  • Section Head, Geriatric Medicine — Academic Medical Center
  • Founder & Medical Director — Home-Based Primary Care Program
  • Director — Center for Health Humanities & Ethics
  • Visiting Fellow — Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture

Articles by Dr. Justin Mutter

16 articles
A small silhouetted woman stands on a vast bare plain looking up at a colossal stone tablet shaped like the Rosetta Stone, its upper panel carved with rows of text and its lower panel embedded with three-dimensional objects — a key, a door, a folded blanket, an open book, a coiled rope, and a candle — each sitting where a word should be, against a vivid cobalt blue sky
Daily CareMarch 19, 2026

What Dementia Behaviors Are Really Telling You

Behaviors are not the person. They are the disease acting on a brain that can no longer regulate itself. A geriatrician and an eight-year family caregiver share what they have learned from living this.

A small silhouetted figure stands before a colossal grandfather clock on cracked earth, its long shadow sweeping across scattered objects against a vivid teal sky
Daily CareMarch 11, 2026

Why Evenings Are the Hardest: Understanding Sundowning in Dementia

A geriatrician explains sundowning through the lens of cognitive reserve and fatigue — why your loved one changes in the evening, and three practices to help: Anticipate, Observe, Alleviate.

A small androgynous silhouetted figure stands at the base of an enormous weathered wooden signpost reading YOU ARE HERE on a vast cracked bare plain, with a tiny distant cluster of buildings barely visible on the far horizon against an amber gold sky
DiagnosisMarch 4, 2026

After the Dementia Diagnosis: Signposts for Our Journey Together

We often meet the word “dementia” with silence. But the challenging questions that follow diagnosis need not be met with silence. Here are four signposts—partnership, parsimony, values, and interdependence—to guide the journey.

An androgynous silhouetted figure stands at the tip of a rocky promontory at the center of a vast sea, looking down at the edge where violent churning waves on the left meet impossibly mirror-calm water on the right, against a vivid warm coral sky
The Hard StuffFebruary 18, 2026

At the Crossroads

Recognizing when care shifts from cure to comfort

A small silhouetted woman stands on a vast bare plain before a colossal ornate dollhouse with its front wall removed, exposing rooms inside — some warmly furnished with chairs and lamps, others with cracked walls and debris, against a vivid teal sky
Staying or MovingJanuary 21, 2026

What a Geriatrician Looks for in Memory Care

Safety, Dignity, and Hard-Won Lessons for Families Choosing Care

A small silhouetted figure stands on a vast bare plain looking up at a colossal old wooden signpost with dozens of directional arms pointing in every direction, each arm painted with the same word HOME against a warm rose sky
Staying or MovingDecember 10, 2025

Three Myths About Senior Living a Geriatrician Wants You to Drop

Understanding Independent, Assisted, and Memory Care While Honoring the Journey of Aging in Place

A small silhouetted figure stands before a colossal open ledger book on a vast bare plain, its left pages dense with handwritten entries while the right pages have been precisely cut out, excised pages scattered on the ground against a vivid cobalt blue sky
The Hard StuffNovember 17, 2025

Care Is the Medicine

Celebrating caregivers and challenging the systems that rely on them even as they overlook them.

A small silhouetted figure stands at the base of an enormous brass bell hanging from a wooden frame on a vast bare plain, pulling loose one of many cloth bandages tightly wound around the bell, a trailing strip of linen on the ground behind them against a deep mauve sky
FamilyOctober 17, 2025

"You Know Your Loved One Best" — A Doctor's Case for Speaking Up

In a system that too often fails older adults, speaking up is not confrontation. It is care.

A small silhouetted figure stands on a vast bare plain looking toward a colossal old leather doctor's bag sitting wide open, overflowing with soft folded blankets and wildflowers that spill over its brass clasp edges and tumble onto the ground, against a warm rose sky
The Hard StuffSeptember 10, 2025

Three Myths About Hospice That Keep Families in the Dark

From wishes to care: turning difficult conversations into confident decisions

A small silhouetted woman stands on a vast bare plain looking up at a colossal architect's drafting table covered in meticulous house blueprints and floor plans, a drafting lamp and compass on its surface, against a sage green sky
Finding HelpAugust 13, 2025

A Doctor's Framework for Hospital Discharge Decisions

A doctor’s guide to navigating hospital discharges and ensuring safe transitions home.

A small silhouetted figure stands among hundreds of empty wooden chairs arranged in concentric circles on a vast plain, all facing inward toward a person seated inside an enormous glass bell jar at the center, against a vivid cobalt blue sky
FamilyJuly 16, 2025

Social Isolation & Loneliness

Understanding the health impacts of social isolation and loneliness in older adults.

A small androgynous figure stands before a colossal ornate iron gate standing wide open on a vast flat plain, its wrought-iron scrollwork perfectly maintained though the stone walls on either side have crumbled into rubble, the same open plain visible through the gate against a warm rose sky
FamilyJune 18, 2025

The Space Between Safety and Independence

Supporting dignity and autonomy while managing the realities of cognitive decline.

A small silhouetted woman stands on a vast bare plain looking at an enormous ornate bed, perfectly made at the headboard but dissolving into loose threads, exposed springs, and streaming wisps of cotton batting at the other end, against an amber gold sky
Daily CareMay 14, 2025

Is This Just Aging, or a Sleep Problem?

Caregiver-tested and doctor-approved strategies to improve senior sleep and wellness.

A small silhouetted figure stands on a vast barren plain scattered with smooth round stones, looking toward one colossal boulder split cleanly in half to reveal intricate crystalline formations and geometric structures inside, against a vivid cobalt blue sky
DiagnosisMarch 12, 2025

Nurturing Minds & Hearts – A Guide to Cognitive Change and Emotional Well-Being

Understanding cognitive changes and building emotional resilience through the caregiving journey.

A colossal double-ended hourglass lying on its side in a vast cracked plain, roots and seedlings growing inside both glass chambers while sand swirls between them, a small woman standing alone on the ground looking toward it against a deep mauve sky
The Hard StuffJanuary 21, 2025

The Science of Us-Care

Understanding the toll of caregiving and why supporting caregivers benefits everyone.

A colossal twisted wooden marionette puppet suspended by dozens of strings, each gripped by a different disembodied hand reaching down from a teal sky, pulling the puppet's contorted limbs in competing directions while a small woman stands alone on the ground below looking up
Daily CareDecember 18, 2024

The Hidden Epidemic of Polypharmacy: Holiday Medication Safety

Peace of mind for the holidays: staying connected to what matters most for senior care.