Ronald W. Dunlap, MD

Cardiologist and Former President of the Massachusetts Medical Society

Dunlap is a graduate of Brown University. He earned his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine in 1973, when he was one of five Black graduates in the class of 1973. A fellow of the American College of Cardiology, 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 cardiologist at West Roxbury VA for 13 years, while also doing critical care and emergency department work for multiple Metrowest area hospitals. Dunlap was an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School for 40 years. Dunlap previously chaired the medical society’s committee on diversity in medicine, is a former member of the board of trustees, a longtime member of its house of delegates and served on the organization’s committee on information technology for nine years. Dunlap 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. He was also the South Shore Hospital’s representative to the American Medical Association’s organized medical staff section. He is the chair of the Massachusetts Medical Society’s organized medical section delegation at the AMA and an AMA delegate. He served on the AMA’s commission to end health care disparities for several years. He has been on the MassachusettsHealth Policy Commission’s advisory council since 2013.