Anna Fitzgerald, MD, Dies at 56

Anna Fitzgerald, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry and medical director of Boston Medical Center’s Psychiatric Emergency Service, and medical director of BMC’s Boston and Cambridge/Somerville Community Crisis Stabilization programs, died Oct. 20 from colon cancer. She was 56.

A graduate of Harvard University with an AB in Anthropology, Dr. Fitzgerald received her MD from BUSM in 1992, trained at the former Boston City Hospital, now BMC, and at Boston University Affiliated Hospitals Program, and became a member of the faculty in 1996. She was an outstanding and empathetic physician for her patients, an inspiring teacher for her students and a thoughtful and personable colleague.

She received the 2016 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, a distinction supported by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, presented to faculty who best demonstrate the foundation’s ideals of clinical excellence, compassion in the delivery of care and respect for patients, their families and for colleagues. A colleague nominating Dr. Fitzgerald for the Tow award shared, “Anna Is not only a role model for students, residents and colleagues, but for all of us, in her ability to place herself in other’s shoes and empathize with them. A lot of people talk about being culturally sensitive and being respectful, but Anna embodies these ideals.”

Dr. Fitzgerald received a BMC Be Exceptional Award in 2015 and was described as “compassionate in all her actions… a role model of respect, and a wonderful individual who is humble, caring, dedicated, and open to everyone she meets.”

Anna is survived by her wife Marice Nichols and their two children, and her mother and brother.