Institutional Board Members

Our IRB members

We have drawn from the world-class medical and educational communities of Greater Boston to seat a review board with unparalleled expertise across a wide range of public health issues, concerns and initiatives. With the combined experience of the Board members, the founders, and the staff, there is seldom a situation that we have not encountered before. This translates into greater protection of patients, greater efficiency in process, and ultimately quicker turnaround times for our clients.

Biographies 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Peter N. Madras, M.D., F.A.C.S. Chairman of the Asentral, Inc. IRB Dr. Madras graduated as a university scholar from McGill University School of Medicine in 1965. Until 1969, he headed the Biomedical Program at the Avco-Everett Research Laboratory, leading in the development of the early heart assist devices, some of which are still widely used today. From 1969 to 1975, Dr. Madras trained in surgery on the Harvard Service of Boston City Hospital, and in Vascular Surgery at the University of Toronto. He practiced as a vascular surgeon from 1975 to 1980 at the University of Toronto, then from 1980 until 2001 as a transplant and vascular surgeon at the New England Deaconess Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He was Medical Director of Grace Biomedical participating in the development of hybrid artificial organs, devices that are part biomechanical and part living tissue. Dr. Madras has served as an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, and is the immediate past chair of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine. Dr. Madras retired from the active practice of surgery in 2001, and currently consults to a number of companies. He is the current chair of the Asentral Institutional Review Board.

Ganson Purcell Jr., M.D., F.A.C.O.G. Chairman of the Asentral, Inc. IRB Dr. Purcell graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in 1962. He served as Chief Resident at the Sloane Hospital for Women at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center before teaching at Tufts University Medical School as Instructor in Obstetrics . Dr. Purcell has also taught as a full Professor of OB/Gyn at both the University of Massachusetts Medical School and at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Dr. Purcell worked at the Cable Memorial Hospital in Ipswich, MA, the Beverly Hospital in Beverly, MA, and at the Hunt Memorial Hospital in Danvers, MA from 1969-1991. While at Hunt, Dr. Purcell served as President of the Medical Staff and Chief of Obstetrics.. From 1977-1994, Dr. Purcell worked at the University of Massachusetts Hospital in Worcester, MA where he was Chief of the Medical Staff, Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs and Associate Director of the Hospital in addition to being Vice-Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He also served during part of this time as President of the Medical Staff. At St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, Dr. Purcell was Chairman/Director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Program Director of the Residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Purcell retired from active practice from the Saint Francis Hospital/Mount Sinai Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, CT after a tenure from 1994-2003. Dr. Purcell is a full scientific member of the Asentral Institutional Review Board.

Hart Achenbach, M.D. Born in Germany, Dr. Achenbach migrated with his family to the United States at the age of three. He put himself through the University of Florida at Gainesville and later graduated from Harvard Medical School, sandwiching his education around his service in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Dr. Achenbach interned at Boston City Hospital where he later taught for the Harvard Medical School and practiced general surgery for over forty years. Dr. Achenbach has practiced and taught surgery as part of Project Hope in Nicaragua, Columbia, Jamaica, and on a Navajo Reservation in Arizona at various times during his career as well as taking time to practice and teach surgery for Care Medico in Afghanistan, Peru, and the Honduras. Now retired from practice, Dr. Achenbach volunteers his time and services to the Peabody Essex Museum and the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine, as well as participating as a full Board member of the Asentral Institutional Review Board.