Massachusetts General Hospital

Biography

John A. Fromson, M.D. is director of professional development in the Department of Psychiatry, a clinician/researcher at the MGH Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders (CATSD), and editor of Career Resources for Physicians of the New England Journal of Medicine online CareerCenter.

His clinical and additional research activities focus on issues relating to anxiety and complicated grief, physician and medical student health, professional development, and patient safety. He was the founding director, served as president, and is currently on the board of Physician Health Services, a national model in identifying and monitoring physicians and medical students with substance use disorders and mental and physical illness. He is chair of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry's Committee on Physician Health, past chair of the American Psychiatric Association's Committee on Physician Health, Illness and Impairment, and past president of the Federation of State Physician Health Programs. In 2010 he was elected Class A Trustee of the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).

Doctor Fromson is also past president of the Mass. Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors. He chaired its Restraint Consensus Group that developed the first statewide best practices for creating restraint-free environments in hospitals, long term care, and psychiatric facilities. For his work in the areas of patient safety and physician and medical student health, Doctor Fromson is the recipient of the Mass. Psychiatric Society's 2008 Outstanding Psychiatrist Award for Advancement of the Profession. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Doctor Fromson is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and received the Harvard Medical School Excellence in Tutoring Award for the academic year 2007 and 2010.

ResearchPostgraduate medical education research is derived from needs assessments and learning objectives that are built around clinically actionable items chosen because they can be longitudinally and quantitatively measured. Outcome measurements of participants' retention, competency,and performance are validated against external standards (evidence-based studies, consensus guidelines and stratified provider bench mark cohorts) to provide aggregate and anonymous performance feedback. Published papers focus on the utilization of clinical vignettes with open ended questions and free-form responses to assess clinical management and treatment outcomes derived from psychiatric postgraduate medical education. Physician health published reports include system level solutions to problem physicians and studies of satisfaction and outcome measurements of successful monitoring of medical student and physician program participants with psychoactive substance use and other psychiatric disorders.

Publications

View my most recent publications at PubMed

1. Fromson JA, Kenney LK. The Disclosure Dilemma - Large-Scale Adverse Events. N Engl J Med 2010; 363:2471 December 16, 2010
2. DesRoches, CM; Rao, SR; Fromson, JA, et al. Physicians' Perceptions, Preparedness for Reporting, and Experiences Related to Impaired and Incompetent Colleagues. JAMA. 2010;304(2):187-193.
3. Sullivan MA, Birkmayer F, Boyarsky BK, Frances RJ, Fromson JA, Galanter M, Levin FR, Lewis C, Nace EP, Suchinsky RT, Tamerin JS, Tolliver B, Westermeyer J. Uses of coercion in addiction treatment: clinical aspects. Am J Addict. 2008 Jan-Feb; 17(1):36-47.
4. Nace EP, Birkmayer F, Sullivan MA, Galanter M, Fromson JA, et al. Socially sanctioned coercion mechanisms for addiction treatment. Am J Addict. 2007 Jan-Feb; 16(1):15-23.
5. Knight JR, Sanchez LT, Sherritt L, Bresnahan LR, Fromson JA. Outcomes of a monitoring program for physicians with mental and behavioral health problems. J Psychiatr Pract. 2007 Jan; 13(1):25-32.
6. Leape LL, Fromson JA. Problem doctors: is there a system-level solution? Ann Intern Med. 2006 Jan 17; 144(2):107-15.
7. Anfang SA, Faulkner LR, Fromson JA, Gendel MH. The American Psychiatric Association's resource document on guidelines for psychiatric fitness-for-duty evaluations of physicians. J Am Acad Psychiatry Law. 2005; 33(1):85-8.
8. Fromson JA. Growth hormone therapy in adults and children. N Engl J Med. 2000 Feb 3; 342(5):359.