Dr. Ciottone is a U.S. board certified Emergency Physician with more than 25 years’ experience in academic Emergency Medicine. He is an internationally recognized expert in Disaster Medicine, having served as a consultant in more than 30 countries around the world, and as an Emergency Management Consultant to the White House Medical Unit during the Obama and Trump administrations, a position he continues in today. Dr. Ciottone has extensive field experience, including developing medical education programs throughout the former Soviet Union in the 1990’s that trained over 75,000 people, serving as Commander of one of the first federal Disaster Medical Teams into Ground Zero during the World Trade Center disaster on 9/11/2001, and leading a team into Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. He has also flown over 200 missions as a flight surgeon on a rescue helicopter system, with experience on the BO105, BK117, and EC135 air-frames. In 2006, Dr. Ciottone became Editor-in Chief of Disaster Medicine, later renamed Ciottone’s Disaster Medicine in his honor. The second edition was released in 2016 and deemed “The leading textbook in the field” by the prestigious journal Annals of Emergency Medicine. In addition to his textbook, he has written over 100 scholarly articles, chapters, and educational materials.
Dr. Ciottone is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and is the Director of the Division of Disaster Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he works clinically in the Department of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Ciottone is the Founder and Director of the first-ever Disaster Medicine Fellowship Program at a Harvard teaching hospital. He also serves as the Director of the Disaster Preparedness Program at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. In addition to these appointments, he has held the positions of Visiting Professor of Disaster Medicine at several prestigious Universities around the world, including Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium and the Universita del Piemonte Orientale in Italy. Dr. Ciottone has had numerous appearances on CNN and SKY news as a subject matter expert, with one of his interviews cited as “Best of CNN”, shows worth watching in 2014. He has been quoted in multiple news sources including the Boston Globe, Washington Times, ABC, CBS, and NBC news networks, Discovery news, and National Public Radio. He has also given TEDx talks on Crisis Leadership and Counter-Terrorism Medicine.
Dr. Ciottone is the recipient of a number of awards and noteworthy positions, including:
- An Official Citation from the Massachusetts Senate for his work at Ground Zero during the September 11, 2001 federal response
- Personally thanked by Tommy Thompson, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, for his service during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
- Medical Director for the Tactical EMS training program at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Academy in Quantico, VA.
- Founding Member of the United States Department of Homeland Security.
- Medical Director for the Operational Medicine Program, Office of Security and Investigations, Department of Homeland Security, Washington, DC.
- Named “EMS Physician of the Year” by Central Massachusetts Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
- “Spotlight” for the Phi Beta Kappa national publication Keynote Reporter.
- Throwing-out the Ceremonial First Pitch as part of a 9/11 remembrance ceremony by the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.
- Working personally with Mikhail Gorbachev and the Gorbachev Foundation towards improved healthcare infrastructure in Russia.
- Named by the Russian Federation Ministries of Education and Science as an approved Evaluation Expert for the New Eurasia Foundation.
- In 2017, the Chinese Ministry of Health adopted and translated Ciottone’s Disaster Medicine, 2nd ed. to be used as the national Emergency Preparedness Training Manual for China.
- Recognized by the White House Medical Unit for “outstanding achievement in support of the White House Medical Unit and the President of the United States” while serving as a White House Emergency Management Consultant.
- Inducted as an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Dr. Ciottone continues to teach and lecture around the world on Disaster Medicine and Counter-Terrorism Medicine. He resides in Westminster Massachusetts with his wife and children.