WALTHAM – Dr. Ronald Dunlap, a resident of Norwell and a retired board-certified cardiologist, has been selected as the Norfolk South District Medical Society’s 2020 Community Clinician of the Year, an award recognizing his professionalism and contributions
as a physician.
Dr. Dunlap is a graduate of Brown University. He earned his medical degree along with four other black students and 20 women from Tufts University School of Medicine 1973.
A fellow of the American College of Cardiology, Dr. Dunlap was a physician with South Shore Cardiology in Weymouth. He also practiced at South Shore Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He was an attending physician at West Roxbury
VA for 15 years, while also doing critical care and emergency department work for multiple Metrowest area hospitals. Dr. Dunlap was an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School for 40 years.
Dr. Dunlap’s career ran concurrent with some major advances in medicine. He was able to participate as a biomedical engineer in research developing the first wireless transmission of EKGs as well as early infant apnea monitors used to assess sudden infant
death syndrome.
A member of MMS since 2000, Dr. Dunlap served as the organization’s president in 2013-2014 as the country implemented the Affordable Care Act.
His work with the Massachusetts Medical Society also includes being a former member of the Board of Trustees and is a long-time member to the House of Delegates. Dunlap previously chaired the medical society’s Committee on Diversity in Medicine and served
on numerous committees that helped influence organizational policy and patient care.
He was also the South Shore Hospital’s representative to the American Medical Association’s Organized Medical Staff Sectio. He is the chair of the Massachusetts Medical Society’s Organized Medical Section delegation at the AMA. He served on the AMA’s
Commission to End Health Care Disparities for several years. He has been on the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission’s Advisory Council since 2013.
Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the Norfolk South District Medical Society had to cancel its annual meeting last May the highlight of which was to have been the presentation of the 2020 Community Clinician of the Year Award to Dr. Dunlap with his family,
friends and colleagues in attendance. In lieu of the public ceremony, the district will mail the plaque to honor him for his for outstanding work as a physician, a mentor and leader.
The Community Clinician of the Year Award was established in 1998 by the Massachusetts Medical Society to recognize a physician from each of the organization’s 20 District Societies who has made significant contributions to his or her patients and the
community.
The Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) is the statewide professional association for physicians and medical students, supporting 25,000 members. We are dedicated to educating and advocating for the physicians of Massachusetts and patients locally and nationally. A leadership voice in health care, the MMS contributes physician and patient perspectives to influence health-related legislation at the state and federal levels, works in support of public health, provides expert advice on physician practice management, and addresses issues of physician well-being. Under the auspices of the NEJM Group, the MMS extends our mission globally by advancing medical knowledge from research to patient care through the New England Journal of Medicine, NEJM Catalyst, and the NEJM Journal Watch family of specialty publications, and through our education products for health care professionals: NEJM Knowledge+, NEJM Resident 360, and our accredited and comprehensive continuing medical education programs.
