Heather L. Lander, M.D.

Dr. Heather Lander is a board-certified Anesthesiologist and has certification in advanced perioperative echocardiography (Advanced PTEeXAM) through the National Board of Echocardiography. Dr. Lander is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at the Uni...

Dr. Heather Lander is a board-certified Anesthesiologist and has certification in advanced perioperative echocardiography (Advanced PTEeXAM) through the National Board of Echocardiography. Dr. Lander is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and the Associate Director of Academic Practice at the Center for Perioperative Medicine.

She is integrally involved in Geriatric Perioperative Excellence and committed to efforts around Age-Friendly Health Systems and the Geriatric Surgical Verification Program. She also was the recent recipient of the prestigious URMFG Health Innovations Grant for her project "The PROMIS of an Equitable, Innovative, Geriatric Perioperative Surgical Home." This interdisciplinary project focuses on creating and implementing a geriatric perioperative surgical home that will utilize provider and patient reported geriatric assessments to deliver targeted education, optimization, and risk discussions in older surgical patients. She is devoted to elevating the care of our aging surgical patients to ensure every older surgical patient receives high-quality, evidence-based care.

She is a member of the URMC medical school, residency, and fellowship selection committees, the Age Friendly Health System Work Group, and was the recipient of a competitive geriatric education grant from the Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program. She was also selected as a WEL scholar (Wellness through Equity and Leadership) with the support of the American Medical Women’s Association, which is an 18-month intensive program with fifty fellow women physicians across the country. Most recently she was selected as the 2024 Perioperative Fellow by the Society for Perioperative Assessment and Quality Improvement (SPAQI).

Dr. Lander was born and raised in Narrowsburg, New York and attended Villanova University with a dual major in Biology and Honors. She then attended medical school at Stony Brook University and completed her residency in Anesthesiology and fellowship in Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA.