Gezzer Ortega, MD, MPH

Gezzer Ortega, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor of Surgery and Lead Faculty for Research and Innovation for Equitable Surgical Care at the Center for Surgery and Public Health in the Department of Surgery at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Harvard Medical School. Born in a low-income Brooklyn neighborhood to immigrant parents from the Dominican Republic, Dr. Ortega’s work centers on improving surgical care for low-income and historically underserved populations, promoting language-concordant care for patients with a non-English preferred language, and leveraging digital health solutions to achieve health equity for all surgical patients.
He serves as the Principal Investigator of an NIH-NIMHD K23 and BWH Center for Diversity and Inclusion Minority Faculty Career Development Award focused on improving outcomes for surgical patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). Dr. Ortega was also the Project Director for the Provider Awareness and Cultural Dexterity Toolkit for Surgeons (PACTS) Trial, a NIMHD R01 project to develop and evaluate a curriculum for surgical residents to improve cross-cultural communication and engagement. Dr. Ortega endeavors to diversify the academic physician workforce and was recognized as Health Provider of the Year (2020) by the Building the Next Generation of Academic Physicians. He co-founded the Latino Surgical Society, which supports the advancement of Latino/a/x surgeons. The National Hispanic Medical Association honored Dr. Ortega as Young Physician of the Year (2020). Dr. Ortega received the Syracuse University Chancellor’s Citation Award (2021) and the Harvard Medical School Scholarly Engagement Excellence in Student Mentoring Award (2022). In 2024, Dr. Ortega was selected as a Scholar in the National Academy of Medicine Scholars in Diagnostic Excellence program. Dr. Ortega earned a Doctor of Medicine from Howard University College of Medicine, a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a Bachelor of Science from Syracuse University.