Dr. Shesser is a tenured Professor of Emergency Medicine, Medicine, and International Health at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences of the George Washington University. From 1995-2025, Dr. Shesser served as the Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the George Washington University. He received a BA degree from the University of Rochester in 1971, an MD degree from the University of Miami in 1976, and an MPH from Johns Hopkins University in 1987. Dr. Shesser completed an Internal Medicine Residency at George Washington University Hospital in 1979 and is a Diplomate of the American Boards of Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine.
Under Dr. Shesser’s three decades of leading the Department, the clinical enterprise grew from a single hospital with 10 faculty to a group with over 80 physicians and 20 APP’s that staff four DC area Emergency Departments that receive more than 200,000 yearly patient visits. Dr. Shesser lead the expansion of the Department’s academic programs by expanding the medical student and residency programs, and developing nine fellowship programs.
Dr. Shesser prioritized expansion of the Department’s current consulting practices to include a unique set of telemedicine programs aimed at both US government and private clients as well as DC’s largest Event Medicine program. The Department also has partnered with several large hospital systems in India to help manage what has become one of the largest physician-capacity programs worldwide.
The Department’s research portfolio, has expanded over ten-fold since 2000, and there is a robust, ED clinical associate program that supports both extramurally funded and investigator-initiated research. Dr. Shesser was also instrumental in restarting an academic Family Medicine program at GW, by recruiting several academic family physicians to develop a Family Medicine Section in anticipation of a Department of Family Medicine in the near future.
Dr. Shesser has lectured and consulted internationally and has published numerous papers in peer reviewed journals about general clinical topics, emergency medicine education, and emergency medicine administration.
Residency Training:
Internal Medicine, George Washington University
Special Interests:
Emergency Medicine Administration
Injury Epidemiology
International Emergency Medicine
Certifications:
Diplomate, American Board of Emergency Medicine
Diplomate, American Board of Internal Medicine
Fellow, American College of Emergency Physicians
Research
Dr. Shesser is interested in ED operations research and general clinic topics
Grants
Dr. Shesser is currently the PI on a Janssen Pharmaceutical multicenter study investigating the safety of discharging low risk patients with newly diagnosed pulmonary emboli from the Emergency Department
Teaching
EHS 2110
Center and Institutes
Ronald Regan Institute of Emergency Medicine
Community Service
Board member, National Capital Poison Center
Programs
Emergency Medical Services
- Shesser R, Smith M: "The Chest Pain Emergency Department and the Outpatient Chest Pain Evaluation Center: Revolution or Evolution?" Annals of Emergency Medicine, 23:334-341, 1994.
- Shesser R, Kirsch T, Smith J, Hirsch R: "An Analysis of Emergency Department Utilization by Patients with Minor Illness," Annals of Emergency Medicine, 20;743-745, 1991
- Shesser R: "Medical Aspects of Commercial Air Travel," American Journal of Emergency Medicine, 7:216-226, 1989
- Smith M, Shesser R: "The Emergency Care of the VIP Patient," New England Journal on Medicine, 319:1421-1423, 1988.