Gary W. Gibbons, MD, FACS

Georgetown University Hospital Conference on the Team Approach to Diabetic Limb Salvage is pleased to present the 2010 Georgetown Distinguished Achievement Award in Diabetic Limb Salvage to Gary W. Gibbons, MD, FACS, Professor of Surgery at Boston University School of Medicine and Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Gary Gibbons, an internationally renowned vascular surgeon, has focused his surgical career on advancing the treatment of diabetic patients with lower extremity wounds and vascular disease. He is a pioneer of the Doralis Pedis Bypass, a lower extremity peripheral arterial bypass procedure that works to restore proper circulation to the feet and helps patients with diabetic foot problems avoid amputation. In addition, he helped to develop many of the multi-disciplinary team care models and algorithms used today in the treatment of diabetic patients. Dr. Gibbons also was one of the first to develop physician report cards for quality of care as a way to measure outcomes and reduce health care costs.

Formerly President and CEO of Quincy Medical Center, Executive Director of Foot Care Specialists of Boston Medical Center, Chief of Vascular Surgery with Boston Medical Center Surgical Associates and Director of the New England Deaconess/Joslin Diabetic Foot Center in Boston, Dr. Gibbons is Professor of Surgery at Boston University School of Medicine and Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.

Active in both professional and community affairs, Dr. Gibbons has received many other prestigious national and international awards. In 1996, he was named Physician of the Year by Rofeh International, and in 1997 he was presented with the Roger Pecoraro Award by the American Diabetes Association’s Foot Council for his contributions to limb preservation in diabetic patients. In 2006, Dr. Gibbons was honored with the Edward James Olmos Award for Advocacy in Amputation Prevention from DFCon Global Diabetic Foot Conference. He has been named to Boston Magazine’s annual list of “Boston’s Top Doctors” and has been listed and recognized in “America’s Best Doctors” and “America’s Top Surgeons (Vascular Surgery).”

Dr. Gibbons is an international lecturer and has published hundreds of articles in clinical journals and book chapters on the subject of the diabetic foot and vascular surgery.

Among his mentors and medical heroes are Dr. Frank Wheelock of New England Deaconess/Joslin Diabetic Foot Center; Drs. Eliott Joslin and Leland McKitterick, original pioneers of the team approach to diabetic care; and Edward James Olmos, whose passion for limb salvage Dr. Gibbon shares.

Dr. Gibbons received his undergraduate degree with Summa Cum Laude honors from the University of Maine and his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine in 1971. He completed his surgical residency and chief residency on the Harvard Surgical Service at the Boston City Hospital and at New England Deaconess Hospital, where he also undertook a nutrition fellowship specializing in the nutritional complications of cardiovascular disease and surgery.

Married for 32 years, Gary and Margaret Gibbons have four children: Lauren, who holds a PhD in public health and works at Johns Hopkins; Casey, a graduate of Williams College; Patric, a junior in pre-med at Tufts University; and an adopted son, Hassan, who is a 6’ 11” basketball player from Guinea, Africa. The family shares their home with Kava, a 13-year-old chocolate lab given to Dr. Gibbons by a grateful patient

Past Award Recipients: Peter Sheehan, MD, 2009; Lawrence B. Harkless, DPM, 2008; and David G. Armstrong, DPM, PhD, 2007.