David E. Swee, MD Installed as 232nd President of the Medical Society of New Jersey

Lawrenceville, N.J. – David E. Swee, MD, was recently installed as the 232nd President of the Medical Society of New Jersey (MSNJ) during the House of Delegates session of the organization’s 2024 Annual Meeting on Saturday, April 20, 2024. Dr. Swee has been a member of MSNJ since 1979 and member of MSNJ’s Board of Trustees since 2017, having served on various councils and committees. Dr. Swee will assume the presidency from Donald M. Chervenak, MD, FACOG.

“Dr. Swee is a passionate advocate for patient health, a supportive colleague and a dedicated physician,” said Larry Downs, CEO of MSNJ. “With a keen eye toward issues of health equity and a focus on primary care, he will bring new ideas and fresh perspective to our organization. I welcome Dr. Swee as our new president for the 2024-2025 term, and look forward to his continued leadership and advocacy on behalf of MSNJ members and all New Jersey physicians.”

In his inaugural speech as President, Dr. Swee shared his priorities for the year:

“I have outlined three areas that I would like to emphasize in the coming year: the ongoing fight over prior authorization, particularly regarding medications; the need to improve payment for all physicians and especially those in primary care; and the idea of exploring a new structure for MSNJ’s House of Delegates. Of course, many more issues will arise during the year to occupy our attention, such as climate change and MSNJ’s response, thoughtful recommendations coming from our very effective Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, expanding access to mental health services for all healthcare workers and the ongoing crisis associated with the obesity epidemic. Whatever the future brings, I will continue to work to make MSNJ the most effective and supportive organization for our physician colleagues.”

Dr. Swee is Emeritus Professor and Immediate Past Chairman of the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. He served as an Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at RWJMS from 2011 to 2019.

Dr. Swee is a graduate of Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Medicine and of the family medicine residency at Somerset Medical Center, and he is board certified in family medicine. From 2002 to 2003, he completed the F. Marian Bishop Fellowship in conjunction with the American Council on Education Fellowship Program. For the school, he was Chairman of the Department of Family Medicine for 15 years, of the school’s Curriculum Committee for nine years, and of the school's faculty practice group for two years. He was also the Associate Dean for Education from 2005 through 2016 and the Associate Dean for Faculty Development from 2011 to 2016. He has served in many other departmental roles such as Director, Predoctoral Programs; Director, Fellowship Programs; and Chair, Appointments and Promotion Committee. From July 2016 to December 2019, he served as the Medical Director of the department’s major practice site, Family Medicine at Monument Square. 

Dr. Swee has held numerous external positions including serving on the American Medical Association Council on Medical Education, which he chaired; on the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which accredits medical schools; on the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education’s Accreditation Review Committee; and on the Medical Society of New Jersey (MSNJ) Committee on Medical Education, which he chaired for many years.

Clinically related positions have included being Chair, MSNJ Council on Medical Services; serving as the MSNJ representative to the Physician Consortium on Performance Improvement; and being a past Chair of the AMA Advisory Committee on Group Practice Physicians. In the area of health policy leadership, he has served as an MSNJ Delegate to the AMA since 2014 and as Chair of the NJ Drug Utilization Review Board since 1998.

Dr. Swee’s other organizational positions have included numerous roles with the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) such as chairing the STFM Education Committee, and service on the Preceptor Education Project as well as serving on both the STFM Board and the STFM Foundation Board of Trustees. He has served in numerous roles with the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians, including as President and then Chairman of the Board. Currently he is the Treasurer and member of the Board of the Institute of Medicine & Public Health of New Jersey, Inc. – The MSNJ Foundation; President of the Middlesex County Medical Society Foundation; and Member-at-large of the Board of the Middlesex/Mercer County Medical Society. Since 2023, as a consultant, he has taken on the roles of the Designated Institutional Official and the Family Medicine Residency Interim Program Director of a residency to be sponsored by and based at the VNACJ-Community Health Center in Asbury Park, NJ.