Dr. Besdine served as Interim Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences at Brown Medical School (2002-2005). He is a founding Board member of the Rhode Island Quality Institute, and a current Board member for Neighborhood Health Plan. He is past President of the American Geriatrics Society, and past chair of its Board of Directors. Dr. Besdine spent 1995-1998 in Federal service; he was Director of the Health Standards and Quality Bureau and first Chief Medical Officer for the Health Care Financing Administration (now CMS), responsible for setting standards, inspection, enforcement and improvement of health care quality for our nation’s 70 million Medicare beneficiaries and Medicaid recipients.

Currently he is  Professor of Medicine, Director of the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Chief of Geriatrics for Lifespan, and first Greer Professor of Geriatric Medicine at Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He is also Professor of Health Services Policy and Practice and Director of the Center for Gerontology Healthcare Research in the Brown University School of Public Health.