Rooted in Lived Experience
For Dr. Berhane, the journey into complex care began not only as a pediatrician but also at home, as the mother of a son with Down syndrome, autism, and epilepsy. When her son’s care needs grew more complex, she experienced firsthand the broken, maze-like system that so many families must navigate. “We have to do better for patients. For families,” she told herself and then set out to build something different.
That belief led her to the chief medical officer of Dell Children’s, where she proposed a clinic designed around what families truly need. With timing that aligned with hospital efforts to test new value-based care models, she secured pilot funding, partnered with family advisors, and began what would become her life’s defining work.
Building Dell Children’s Comprehensive Care Clinic
Before opening the doors in 2012, Dr. Berhane and her colleague Kendra, also a parent of a medically fragile child who also worked on Dell Children’s palliative care council, drove across Texas visiting other clinics to see what was working and what wasn’t. The vision was ambitious: designing a model of care that starts with input from the families it serves.
The result was Dell Children’s Comprehensive Care (CCC) Clinic, a dedicated primary care medical home for children with medical complexity. What began with a staff of eight has since grown to more than 55 team members, serving nearly 1,000 children.
Families were partners from day one. A parent advisory council helped design the clinic’s workflows, and today a Family Work Group and full-time family liaison remain integral to its operation. Families are compensated for their expertise, reflecting Dr. Berhane’s core belief that caregivers are co-designers of the care system, not just recipients.
The clinic has become a national model: a space where all staff are on a first name basis, families have 24/7 access, nurse navigators are single points of contact, multiple specialists collaborate in one coordinated team, and children can even receive care without leaving the classroom through the clinic at Austin’s Rosedale School.
Innovator, Policy Leader, and Mentor
From the beginning, Dr. Berhane recognized that the fee-for-service system was not designed for children with medical complexity. Dr. Berhane stressed that this population requires relationship-based, ongoing care with dedicated time before and after the visit to communicate with other providers and develop a cohesive care plan. In response, she championed alternative payment models, piloted Medicaid contracts for care coordination, and developed Whole Child Visits, biannual telehealth visits that bring together primary care, specialists, and families to create comprehensive care plans.
She has also shaped policy at the state and national levels, serving on Texas Health and Human Services advisory committees, leading HRSA-funded innovation projects, and partnering with Dell Medical School to integrate research and policy expertise. She has worked tirelessly to show payers and policymakers that when families are supported, outcomes improve and systems grow stronger.
Dr. Berhane’s mentorship is equally impactful. More than ten trainees have launched careers in complex care under her guidance, carrying forward her vision of family-centered, equity-driven medicine.
A Legacy of Change
Dr. Berhane’s accomplishments are endless, but perhaps her greatest legacy is her unwavering commitment to families: knowing their journeys, naming their struggles, and building systems that respond. She transformed personal experience into a movement for systemic change.
While her son Senai never received care in the clinic she built, his story is written into its foundation. He was the inspiration and guiding light behind her work to create a place where every child’s story matters, and where families are no longer left to carry the burden alone.
Dr. Berhane’s impact will live on not only in the walls of the Comprehensive Care Clinic but also in the families whose voices she amplified, the clinicians she mentored, and the systems she helped transform. She is a healer, a visionary, and above all, an advocate for children with complex care needs.