A Profile of James Dunford, MD, Recipient of the 2017 James O. Page/JEMS Leadership Award

It would be easy to trip over the seemingly endless supply of plaques and awards possessed by James Dunford, MD, if they weren't so meticulously tucked away out of sight. The fact that the awards are hidden behind his well-organized desk isn't because their owner trivializes them. It's merely a testament to the disarming humility of this emergency physician. Dunford isn't in it for the praise. He's on a tireless quest to fix a broken system. But talent like his can't hide behind a desk, which is why it's no surprise that he's the 2017 James O. Page/JEMS Leadership Award recipient. Dunford passionately believes in helping some of society's most vulnerable patients who often pose the biggest financial burden on the healthcare system and subsequently drain taxpayer dollars. Succinctly put, Dunford observed that "100% of what comes into the hospital is broken, and 90% of it didn't have to be." It's from this belief that he's been instrumental in implementing several key projects for his city, including San Diego Project Heart Beat, the Resource Access Program (RAP), Project 25, and countless medical trials in coordination with such impressive medical institutions as National Institutes of Health (NIH), Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC), and the American Heart Association (AHA). When asked why he chose medicine as a profession, Dunford responds like so many other gifted yet unassuming innovators who seem to stumble into their brilliance: He delivers a casual shrug ...
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Patient Care Administration and Leadership Source Type: news