Dr. James L. Baker Named Medical Director In Massachusetts

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James L. Baker, MD, MPH

Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care in Massachusetts is pleased to announce the appointment of James L. Baker, MD, MPH, as its medical director. A nationally recognized expert in hospice and palliative medicine, Dr. Baker most recently served as medical director of VNA Hospice Care of Boston.

He earned his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City. Following a general surgery internship at University of Oklahoma in Tulsa, he performed an emergency medicine residency at University of Massachusetts in Worcester. Dr. Baker also completed a fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Care at Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

“Dr. Baker comes to Seasons with a wonderful combination of experience, knowledge and creative energy,” said Balu Natarajan, M.D., chief medical o�cer, Seasons Hospice. “We look forward to all that he will bring to each patient’s bedside.”

“I am delighted to join Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care of Massachusetts as medical director,” Dr. Baker added. “This is a wonderful organization that truly puts the patient and family at the heart of all they do. I look forward to doing all that I can to provide the highest-quality care.”

Dr. Baker is certi�ed in hospice and palliative medicine by the American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He’s also board-certi�ed in emergency medicine and spent 23 years as an attending physician and professor of emergency medicine at such prestigious medical centers as Johns Hopkins Hospital, UMass Memorial Medical Center and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

In addition, Dr. Baker is an epidemiologist and, in the 1980s, was invited to the sta� of the Presidential Commission on the HIV Epidemic and wrote the �rst Centers for Disease Control Guidelines for controlling occupational exposure to HIV.

After spending nearly two decades teaching emergency medicine to residents and medical students, Dr. Baker found himself drawn to hospice and palliative care.

“Hospice is all about gentle care for people and providing patients with solace and symptom relief,” he said. “I know in my heart, this is what I was meant to do. A hospice patient’s needs are very personal, and you get to know the family on a deeper level.”

Throughout his medical career, he has been involved in medical research and has written numerous articles for medical journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association.