Legacy
G. Alan Kurose, M.D. Healthcare Impact Fund
No matter the challenge before him, Dr. George Alan Kurose returned to the same question every time: “What's best for the patient?” For Al, as he was known to those close to him, this was never a platitude; it was a discipline. He practiced it daily, first as an internal medicine physician in East Providence and later, as a nationally recognized healthcare leader.
Al passed away on October 30, 2025, at the age of 64, after a battle with pancreatic cancer that he faced with characteristic grace. His career spanned private practice, the presidency of Coastal Medical, where he helped build one of the country's best-performing Accountable Care Organizations, and senior leadership roles at Lifespan and Nuvance Health. He testified before the U.S. Senate on value-based care. Yet those who knew him best say he never spoke in terms of "I." It was always "we."
"He brought the right people into the room and gave them all equal footing," recalls his wife, Sharon. "He never thought he had all the answers. His ability to bring people together and make them feel comfortable sharing their knowledge, always working toward what's best for the patient – that was the secret of his success."
Sharon established the G. Alan Kurose, M.D. Healthcare Impact Fund at the Rhode Island Foundation to honor the two causes closest to his heart. "It combines the two things he was most passionate about, other than his family," she explains, "improving healthcare for Rhode Islanders and the work of the Rhode Island Foundation." Al served the Foundation as both board member and board chair from 2017 through 2025.
"He brought the right people into the room and gave them all equal footing. He never thought he had all the answers. His ability to bring people together and make them feel comfortable sharing their knowledge, always working toward what's best for the patient – that was the secret of his success."
This innovative fund will support an annual award and the Foundation's grantmaking in healthcare. Each year, the G. Alan Kurose, M.D. Healthcare Impact Award will recognize an individual, team, or organization advancing patient outcomes while improving quality and reducing cost. Alongside the award, the fund will expand the Foundation's discretionary grantmaking in healthcare, with a priority toward primary care, reflecting Al's belief that better care and lower costs are not opposing forces, but rather two sides of the same commitment to patients.
Al's daughter, Megan, sees the award as an important reminder of her father’s ability to hold both the sweeping and the personal in view at once. "He always had a larger view in his mind, but he worked from the ground up. It always came down to the individual and how their care could be improved. Those years of taking care of patients were the great basis for his work as a healthcare policy reform leader."
For Sharon, the fund carries a deeper purpose still. "When you die at 64, there are grandchildren you haven't met yet. A fund like this is a legacy — it's a way that future generations of the Kurose family, as well as those who cared about Al, can come to know him and support the work he valued."
The Foundation is honored to steward this fund and to carry forward Al's legacy and vision for a healthier Rhode Island.
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