Bio

Sanjay Desai, MD, is the Chief Academic Officer for the American Medical Association overseeing all Medical Education activities for the organization. Dr. Desai joined the AMA in October 2021 from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he served as a Chief Resident and was the Myron L. Weisfeldt Professor of Medicine, Director of the Osler Medical Residency, and Vice Chair for Education in the Department of Medicine. He is an accomplished clinician, researcher, educator, and administrator with appointments in Pulmonary and Critical Care, General Internal Medicine, as well as with the Carey School of Business. Before Hopkins, he was Director of the medical ICU at the Medstar Washington Hospital Center, the largest hospital in Washington D.C.

Dr. Desai has been widely recognized for his accomplishments in academic medicine, clinical practice and health systems administration. His research focuses on generating high-quality data to inform policy and practice in medical education. He has authored over 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including series of articles in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Desai was also awarded the highly acclaimed Professors’ Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Desai grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in bioengineering and a Bachelor of Economics from the Wharton School of Business in healthcare management. He earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed his residency and subspecialty fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where is also served as a Chief Resident. Dr. Desai is also a senior advisor for McKinsey & Company, where he also worked as a consultant for variety of industries in the US and in Southeast Asia.