James S. Gessner, M.D. is elected President of the Massachusetts Medical Society

Waltham, Mass. – May 5 – Chestnut Hill resident James S. Gessner, M.D. has been elected President of the Massachusetts Medical Society at the organization’s annual meeting May 5 at the Seaport Hotel in Boston. As President, Dr. Gessner will serve a one-year term as the top officer of the Society, the statewide professional association of physicians with more than 25,000 members.

A member of the Massachusetts Medical Society since 1982, Dr. Gessner has served the organization in a variety of capacities, most recently as President-Elect and Vice President, respectively, over the last two years. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 2006 and the Society’s governing body, its House of Delegates, since 2003. He chaired the Committee on Finance for nine years, from 2005-2014 and has been a member of the Committees on Administration and Management, Strategic Planning, Legislation, Bylaws, and Member Services. From 2001-2003, he was president of the Norfolk District Medical Society.

Board-certified in anesthesiology and pediatrics, Dr. Gessner is a physician with Anaesthesia Associates of Massachusetts, one of New England’s largest private practice anesthesiology groups serving major academic and medical centers throughout the Northeast. He is also Chairman of the Department of Anesthesia at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain and has appointments in anesthesiology at Boston Medical Center, New England Baptist Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital, and Southcoast Hospital Group.

Dr. Gessner has long been active with anesthesia specialty societies, holding several leadership positions. He is a past president of the New England Society of Anesthesiologists and currently serves as its Secretary-Treasurer. From 1994-1995, he was president of the Massachusetts Society of Anesthesiologists, and he continues his service with that organization as a Government Officer and member of its Judicial Committee. On the national level, he was a Massachusetts delegate to the American Society of Anesthesiologists from 1984-2009.

A cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Bowdoin College with an A.B., Dr. Gessner received a B.M.S. from Dartmouth Medical School in 1970 and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1972. He completed residencies in pediatrics at Duke University Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital and in anesthesiology at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. He was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1981.

Dr. Gessner has also served long tenures on several key hospital committees. From 1986-1996, he was a member of the Risk Management Committee in the Department of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School; from 1986-1995, he was Chairman of the Bioethics Committee at New England Deaconess Hospital; and from 1993-2013, he was a member of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee at Faulkner Hospital.

Since 2000, he has been an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at Boston Medical Center, and was a Clinical Instructor in Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School from 1979-1998.

The Massachusetts Medical Society, with some 25,000 physicians and student members, is dedicated to educating and advocating for the patients and physicians of Massachusetts. The Society, under the auspices of NEJM Group, publishes the New England Journal of Medicine, a leading global medical journal and web site, and Journal Watch alerts and newsletters covering 13 specialties. The Society is also a leader in continuing medical education providing accredited and certified activities across the globe for physicians and other health care professionals. Founded in 1781, MMS is the oldest continuously operating medical society in the country. For more information please visit www.massmed.org, www.nejm.org, or www.jwatch.org.

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