Profile_Theodore_Christopher

Theodore A. Christopher, MD, FACEP Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine Thomas Jefferson University Hospital

About the Speaker:

Theodore A. Christopher, MD, FACEP, is the Green Family Foundation and John and Patricia Walsh, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College (SKMC) of Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia. He became the 168th president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED) on October 14, 2017, having served on its board of trustees since 2011.

Since becoming a physician, Dr. Christopher has been active in emergency medicine clinical practice, administration, education, and research. Under his leadership, Jefferson’s Department of Emergency Medicine has treated millions of patients and has helped establish Thomas Jefferson University Hospital as one of Philadelphia’s premier safety net hospitals. He has volunteered extensively in his community and assumed leadership positions not only in his medical institution, but also within several medical organizations.

He currently serves on the Governor’s Pennsylvania State Opioid Crisis Task Force, and Co-Chairs the Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals’ Opioid Task Force. He has also been the Chairman of Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals’ Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee for the past 16 years.

Dr. Christopher is past president of the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine, the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians, receiving the Chapter’s Meritorious Service Award, and the Philadelphia County Medical Society, serving as its liaison to the Philadelphia Health Management Corporation (PHMC). He has also served as a Pennsylvania Delegate to the American Medical Association for many years.

A Summa Cum Laude graduate of Harvard University, Dr. Christopher attained his medical degree at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 1981. He then completed residencies in Internal Medicine, at Brown University’s Rhode Island Hospital (1984), and Emergency Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (1986); he is board-certified in both specialties.

Dr. Christopher has written or co-authored more than 80 peer reviewed articles and delivered more than 140 abstracts and research presentations, nationally and internationally, on a wide range of topics, including ischemic reperfusion injury, hospital patient access and flow, advocacy in medicine, and the future of emergency medicine and health care. Under his academic leadership, Jefferson’s Department of Emergency Medicine is currently ranked #7 nationwide in specialty-specific NIH funding.

Dr. Christopher resides outside of Philadelphia with his wife of 33 years, Claudia, a head trauma and spinal cord physical therapist. He has three daughters – Monica, a plastics and reconstructive surgery physician’s assistant at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore; Adrienne, a general surgery resident at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia; and Vanessa, a fourth-year medical student at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadelphia.