Robert J. Canelli, MD

Robert J. Canelli, MD, is a board-certified anesthesiologist and intensivist at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Clinical Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, where he serves as Deputy Director of the Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Fellowship. Dr. Canelli is also the Associate Director of the Surgical and Neurosciences Intensive Care Unit and Director of Critical Care for Anesthesia at BMC. He was Chief Resident in Anesthesiology at the University of Massachusetts and completed a critical care fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Dr. Canelli serves as the Site Officer for Anesthesiology within BMC’s Integrated Procedure Platform, where he works with surgical and nursing leadership to improve operating room efficiency. He is the co-editor of the interprofessional patient safety book OK to Proceed? What Every Health Care Provider Should Know about Patient Safety, which serves as the blueprint for BMC’s hospital-wide patient safety curriculum.

In 2015, Dr. Canelli was named Clinical Director for Simulation for Anesthesiology, and he currently serves as Associate Clinical Director of Anesthesia at the Alan D. Solomont & Susan Lewis Solomont Clinical Simulation & Nursing Education Center at BMC. He has developed a simulation-based anesthesia curriculum for BMC’s residency program, including a biannual Objective Structured Clinical Examination. In addition, he has worked with his surgical and nursing counterparts to develop interprofessional simulation programs including the Perioperative Team Training Simulation Curriculum and the Emergency Airway Response Team Training Simulation Curriculum. These programs have earned him the Teacher of the Year Award given by anesthesia residents to most outstanding faculty.

In the clinical environment, he is interested in neuroanesthesia and point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS).