Massachusetts General Hospital

Biography

Dr. Ginns received his BA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and his MD from the University of Vermont College of Medicine. After his medical residency at Washington University in St. Louis, he trained in the Laboratory of Dr. Herman Eisen, in immunology, at the Center for Cancer Research of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) as a Clinical and Research Fellow in 1977. Since then, he has been part of the staff of the Department of Medicine at MGH and HMS. Dr. Ginns has conducted basic research in immunology of lung disease as well as clinical research in lung transplantation and advanced lung disease. In 1990, he became Medical Director of the Lung Transplantation Program, a position held until 2010. At that time, he became Director of The MGH Center for Advanced Lung Disease. He is currently Medical Director of the MGH Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program and Clinical Director of the MGH Interstitial Program.  Dr. Ginns is author and coauthor of over 100 professional publications as well as co-editor of Transplantation, an authoritative and comprehensive textbook in the field of clinical transplantation.

Dr. Ginns has made a substantial commitment to medical education and is a member of the Academy Center for Teaching and Learning at HMS. He has been lecturer, seminar leader, and teacher in CME courses in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care, Thoracic Surgery, and Pulmonary Pathology at MGH and HMS. He has also been invited as lecturer at numerous hospital and meeting forums, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Dr. Ginns is a member of the American Thoracic Society, International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation, American Society of Transplantation, The Transplantation Society, the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation, and is a Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians.

Research

After completing his clinical training in internal medicine at Barnes Hospital, Dr. Ginns spent two years as a Fellow of the American Cancer Society in the laboratory of Dr. Herman Eisen at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research and training in basic immunology led him to begin a research path in the nascent field of pulmonary immunology at MGH, where he completed his clinical fellowship training in pulmonary medicine. His focus became the study of T-cell subsets in three broad areas: smoking, lung cancer and interstitial lung disease. His research was the first to employ the use of monoclonal antibodies and automated flow cytometry in the analysis of T-cell subsets in both peripheral blood and in bronchoalveolar lavage in patients with these conditions. Dr. Ginns also studied Natural Killer cell activity in such patients. This work enhanced his exposure to patients with advanced lung disease, having few realistic treatment options. The need to offer suitable therapeutic alternatives led him, consequently, to initiate, in conjunction with thoracic surgery, a program at MGH for lung transplantation. Currently, his focus is clinical research while he directs the MGH Center for Advanced Lung Disease.