Media Release

For Immediate Release
Date:  June 11, 2003
Contact: Robert J. Marshall, PhD     222-1017

HEALTH Appoints New Medical Board Chief  
Dr. Robert S. Crausman Assumes New Role on September 15, 2003

Today the Rhode Island Department of Health announced the appointment of Robert Crausman, MD, MMS as the new Chief Administrative Officer for the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline.  The Board oversees licensing of all physicians in Rhode Island. 

“Dr. Crausman brings an intense interest in improving the quality of health care in Rhode Island,” said Dr. Patricia A. Nolan, Director of the Department of Health and Chairperson of the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline.  “He will bring renewed energy and direction to the Board and its excellent staff, who have worked without a current Chief since 2001.  We look forward to Dr. Crausman joining the Department and providing his medical expertise and judgment to the important task of licensing physicians in Rhode Island.”

Dr. Crausman is a graduate of Brown University and Brown Medical School and completed residency training at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.  He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine, and has specialty certifications in pulmonary medicine and critical care medicine.  He is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Brown University Medical School, and will continue his affiliation with the Brown faculty.

Dr. Crausman joined the staff of Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1995, upon his return to the state after several years in Colorado.  He has served as Chief of Geriatrics in the Department of Medicine at Memorial Hospital for the past two years.

Due to existing practice and medical education commitments, Dr. Crausman, plans to begin his new responsibilities on September 15, 2003.  The previous Chief, Dr. Milton Hamolsky, retired in 2001.