(Boston)--Thea L. James, MD, FACEP, associate professor of emergency medicine, has been recognized as the inaugural recipient of a national American College of Emergency Physicians award (ACEP). The Dr. Thea James Social Emergency Medicine Lifetime Achievement Award was created in recognition of her outstanding contribution and dedication to advancing the field of social emergency medicine.
"The American College of Emergency Physicians congratulates Dr. James, a leader in the field of social emergency medicine," said Mark Rosenberg, DO, MBA, FACEP, president of ACEP. "Emergency physicians confront the consequences of gaps in health care every day. Dr. James recognizes the risks that health disparities pose to patients and has dedicated her career to closing these gaps, improving health equity through social emergency medicine and making sure that patients of all backgrounds have more opportunities to access treatment they need. Dr. James' leadership and legacy of accomplishments will set an example for every medical professional who truly wants to make a difference in patients' lives."
As a former supervising medical officer on the Boston Disaster Medical Assistance Team, under the Department of Health and Human Services, James has responded to disasters in the U.S. and internationally. She deployed after 9/11 to New York City, after Hurricane Katrina to New Orleans in 2005, to Bam, Iran after the earthquake in 2003, and to Port-Au-Prince Haiti after the earthquake of 2010. For 12 years James has traveled with colleagues and emergency medicine residents to Haiti. A graduate of Georgetown University School of Medicine, James completed an emergency medicine residency at Boston City Hospital, now Boston Medical Center (BMC).
James serves as associate chief medical officer, vice president of mission, and director of the Violence Intervention Advocacy Program (VIAP) at BMC, has chaired and served on national committees within the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine and is a member of the School of Medicine's Admissions Committee. In addition, she chairs the licensing committee of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine.
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ACEP is the national medical society representing emergency medicine. Through continuing education, research, public education and advocacy, ACEP advances emergency care on behalf of its 40,000 emergency physician members, and the more than 150 million Americans they treat on an annual basis.