Monahan, Brian February 18, 2021

Brian Patrick Monahan, MD, MACP

Rear Admiral Brian Patrick Monahan, MD, MACP, is the seventh Attending Physician of the United States Congress and the United States Supreme Court. Since January 2009, he has served in this capacity as the physician responsible for the medical welfare of members of The United States Congress and the nine Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. He has additional significant occupational responsibilities in public health, occupational health, and environmental health of the work force, and management of disasters both naturally occurring and man-made.  He works extensively among the Federal agencies with regard to National Special Security Events and Continuity of Government initiatives.  He is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology and is a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy. He has been a member of MSDC since 1983.  MSDC President Dr. E.W. Emanuel says of Dr. Monahan, "For more than a decade, Dr. Brian Monahan has served the nation, and the practice of medicine, with professionalism and humanity -- every day placing patients before politics and improving the lives of the people he serves."  

During his tenure, Dr. Monahan served as the Surgeon General’s Hematology and Medical Oncology Specialty Leader and as training Program Director of Hematology and Medical Oncology at the National Naval Medical Center National Capital Consortium.  He has served as Chairman and Professor of Medicine and Pathology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Maryland. From 1987 to 1989, Dr. Monahan served as the Battalion Surgeon for the 3rd Battalion 6th Marine Regiment, and he has always had a keen eye for patient safety. As a junior medicine resident on duty in the Emergency Room, he led the discovery of the cardiac arrythmia risk of unexpected drug interactions and sudden death tied to terfenadine (Seldane), an early non-sedating antihistamine, and at that time, the world’s most prescribed drug. The discovery of unexpected drug interactions leading to such risk among a commonly used medication transformed the FDA’s drug approval requirements in the US and worldwide. Eventually this led to the removal of terfenadine from the market. Dr. Monahan received his medical degree from Georgetown University, and he trained in Internal Medicine and Hematology and Medical Oncology at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda Maryland.

Dr. Monahan is a Master of The American College of Physicians and a Fellow the Royal Academy of Physicians -London    Dr. Monahan was born in Connecticut, the son of Irish immigrants who came to the United States in the 1950s. He is an avid photographer and devoted father.