Sharon resident and South Shore physician Alice A. Coombs, M.D. has received the Massachusetts Medical Society's Committee Chair Service Award, recognizing exceptional leadership and service to the Society, the statewide professional association of physicians.

She will receive his award at the Society's annual meeting in Boston on May 18.

Coombs, a critical care specialist at South Shore Hospital and an anesthesiologist with South Shore Anesthesia Associates, is being honored for her nine years of service as a member of the Committee on Diversity, including two terms chair of the committee.

A member of the Massachusetts Medical Society since 1990, Coombs has long been active in organized medicine and was 2010-2011 president of the organization, following terms as president-elect, vice president, and secretary-treasurer. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees and the House of Delegates.

Coombs is a member of the American Medical Association's Commission to Eliminate Healthcare Disparities and a former member of the Massachusetts State Commission to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Healthcare Disparities. She was also a member of the Massachusetts Special Commission on the Health Care Payment System, established to evaluate the health care payment system and recommend reforms that will provide incentives for cost-effective and patient-centered care, and is former vice chair of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine's Patient Care Assessment Committee.

She has served on the Medical Society's committees on Public Health, Managed Care, Recognition Awards, and Leadership Development. She is a past president of the Norfolk South District Medical Society, one of 20 district groups that comprise the statewide organization and a former chair of the Ethics Committee at South Shore Hospital.