For One Newly Elected IoM Member, The Honor Is All In The Family

For more than two decades, election to membership in the prestigious Institute of Medicine (IoM) has been a source of pride for the honorees and their families. But for the family of one of the 50 recently announced members of the institute, the occasion carried an extra- special meaning. Margaret A. Hamburg, health commissioner of the New York City Department of Health, became the third member of her family to be elected to IoM. Her parents, psychiatrists David A. Hamburg, currently president of the New York-based Carnegie Corporation, and Beatrix A. Hamburg, who now serves as the president of the William T. Grant Foundation, were elected to the institute in 1971 and 1979, respectively. Margaret Hamburg recalls that at the October annual meeting, at which she and the other new members--32 men and 18 women in all--were announced, "there was a sense of real enthusiasm and fun that the father-mother-daughter constellation had been formed." "It's a real distinction in the medical profession," adds Hamburg, who at 39 is one of the youngest people to ever be elected to IoM. She and the other new members will be formally inducted into the institute during its October 1995 annual meeting. IoM was chartered in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to address issues of health and delivery of health services to society. Described by a longtime member--Mary Ellen Avery, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School--as "the medical arm of NAS," IoM conducts studies at the request of the United States government and issues reports on a wide array of policy issues related to health and medicine. Other than sharing similar operating procedures, the two organizations run independently. There is some overlap in the two memberships, although induction into one does not guarantee the other; Avery, for instance, has been an IoM member since 1981 and served as a member of the governing council from 1987 to 1993, but was not elected to the academy until earlier this year. New institute members are chosen by an electoral process within its active membership, which according to the charter cannot exceed 600 people and currently stands at 493. New honorees are obliged to volunteer their time to serve on various IoM committees engaged in various studies. Individuals aged 66 or over are transferred to the roster of senior members, who cannot vote or hold office, but serve in an advisory capacity. With this year's additions, including five individuals elected directly to senior membership, IoM has a total of 536 senior members in addition to 38 foreign associates, who also do not have voting rights. Both of the elder Hamburgs are now senior members. At the time of her election, Beatrix Hamburg held an appointment as an associate professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine. At the time of his induction, David Hamburg, who went on to serve as IoM president from 1975 to 1980, was chairman of the department of psychiatry at Stanford. While NAS advises the federal government in matters of science and technology policy, Avery notes, "it covers all of science, and physicians have a very small piece of the action." As medicine and health care began to play a bigger role in society, she adds, it became apparent that these issues "had a dimension that was not strictly science, but social and humanistic." The input of professionals involved in the social, behavioral, legal, and administrative aspects of health issues is important for setting policy, she points out. This realization led to the establishment of IoM. Diverse Membership IoM's charter provides for a broad-based membership from within the medical community--including practicing physicians, re-searchers, nurses, and public health officials--and also mandates that at least one-quarter of the total active membership be drawn from outside the health professions. New inductee Amitai Etzioni, founder and director of the Center for Policy Research in Washington, D.C., and University Professor at George Washington University, is one such example. "I look forward to interacting with colleagues from 'real' science and medicine," says Etzioni, a sociologist who maintains a special interest in issues of medical and health ethics. He is well known as the author of the book Genetic Fix (New York, Macmillan Publishing, 1973) in which he raised several questions on the ethics of genetic engineering. Over the years, Avery points out, IoM has conducted investigations and prepared reports on crucial issues in health policy. In the 1980s, it was "the first to issue a study on the seriousness of AIDS," she notes. Two reports--AIDS and Behavior: An Integrated Approach, focusing on various behavioral and mental-health aspects of HIV infection; and Growing Up Tobacco Free: Preventing Nicotine Addiction in Children and Youths--were released earlier this year, and a third, entitled Weighing the Options: Criteria for Evaluating Weight Management Programs, was released only last week. Current projects being conducted by the institute include an assessment of HIV transmission through blood products and an evaluation of ways to bolster dental education in the U.S. As most new members have not yet attended any of the institute's meetings, many say it is too soon to know which of the specific committees and projects they will choose to work on. Instead, they identified the areas they would like to be involved in. For instance, Anne B. Young, a physician and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School who specializes in such neurodegenerative disorders as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's diseases, expresses her concern with "how to deal with the increasing numbers of people afflicted with dementing disorders." In addition, she says, "I am interested in evaluating the criteria for applying new predictive genetic tests to populations at risk for various neurologic diseases." One of the few inductees to have attended last October's IoM meeting, Shu Chien, a professor of bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego, says, "I was very impressed with the timeliness of the topics--[such as] the health aspects of violence--and the discussions were very informative." Chien says that his tenure as president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) in 1992-93 involved him in health research and education, and he hopes to be involved in these areas at IoM. "I still don't know what I will be involved with, though I would like to contribute to as many [projects] as possible. I am very honored to have been elected," he says. With a diverse academic background that includes medical training in Taiwan, a Ph.D. in physiology, and considerable exposure to physics and engineering through his work in bioengineering, Chien maintains multiple research interests, including studies of blood flow, such hematological disorders as atherosclerosis and ischemia, and tissue engineering. Date : December 12, 1994 Back To:For One Newly Elected IoM Member, The Honor Is All In The Family Nancy E. Adler, professor of medical psychology and director, Health Psychology Program, University of California, San Francisco Dyanne D. Affonso, dean and professor, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, Atlanta Huda Akil, Gardner C. Quarton Professor of Neurosciences, department of psychiatry; research scientist, Mental Health Research Institute; director, neuroscience program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Bobby R. Alford, executive vice president, dean of medicine, and distinguished service professor, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Stephen J. Benkovic, professor of chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, University Park Paul C. Brucker, president, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia Patricia A. Buffler, dean and professor of epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley Ann W. Burgessvan, Ameringen Professor of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Anthony Cerami, president, Picower Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, N.Y. Shu Chien, professor and chairman, department of bioengineering, University of California, San Diego Paul D. Cleary, professor, departments of health-care policy and social medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston Jordan J. Cohen, president, Association of American Medical Colleges, Washington, D.C. Molly Joel Coye, senior vice president for community care, Good Samaritan Health System, San Jose, Calif. Mickey S. Eisenberg, director, Emergency Medicine Service and section head, division of general internal medicine, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle Amitai Etzioni, director, Center for Policy Research, Washington, D.C.; university professor, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. Ruth R. Faden, senior research scholar, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.; professor and director, Program in Law, Ethics, and Health, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore Thomas B. Fitzpatrick, Wiggleworth Professor of Dermatology, Emeritus, Massachusetts General Hospital Elaine V. Fuchs, investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Laboratories; Amgen Professor of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Chicago Patricia Goldman-Rakic, professor of neuroscience, section of neurobiology, and joint appointment, department of psychology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. Ann M. Graybiel, professor of neuroanatomy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge Margaret A. Hamburg, health commissioner, New York City Department of Health Peter M. Howley, George Fabyan Professor and chairman, department of pathology, Harvard Medical School Dean T. Jamison, professor of public health and of education, Graduate School of Education; professor, School of Public Health; director, Center for Pacific Rim Studies, University of California, Los Angeles Michael M. Kaback, professor, pediatrics and reproductive medicine; and chief, division of medical genetics, department of pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego Janet C. King, professor of nutrition, University of California, Berkeley Mary-Claire King, professor of genetics, department of molecular and cell biology; professor of epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley Peter O. Kohler, president, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland Robert J. Lefkowitz investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Laboratories; James B. Duke Professor of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C. David E. Longnecker,Dripps Professor and chairman, department of anesthesia, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center Clement J. McDonald, Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine; chief, Computer Science Research Group; codirector, Regenstrief Institute for Health Care; associate administrator, Wishard Memorial Hospital, Indianapolis James J. Mongan, dean, Kansas City School of Medicine, University of Missouri; executive director, Truman Medical Center, Kansas City, Mo. Joseph E. Murray, professor of surgery, emeritus, Harvard Medical School; chief (plastic surgery), emeritus, Brigham and WomenUs Hospital and Children's Hospital Medical Center, Boston Hans Neurath, professor emeritus, department of biochemistry, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle Jane S. Norbeck, dean and professor, School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco Kenneth Olden, director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, N.C. Theodore L. Phillips, professor and chairman, department of radiation oncology, University of California, San Francisco Irwin H. Rosenburg, Jean Mayer Professor of Nutrition and Medicine and director, USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston Allen D. Roses, Jefferson-Pilot Professor of Neurobiology and Neurology and chief, division of neurology, department of medicine, Duke University Medical Center F. Sherwood Rowland, Donald Bren Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine Joe Leigh Simpson, Ernst W. Bertner Chairman, department of obstetrics and gynecology; professor, department of molecular and human genetics, Baylor College of Medicine Jerome F. Strauss III, Luigi Mastroianni Jr. Professor; director, Center for Research on WomenUs Health and Reproduction; associate chairman, department of obstetrics and gynecology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Richard W. Tsien, George D. Smith Professor, department of molecular and cellular physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif. Ming T. Tsuang, Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; superintendent and head, Harvard department of psychiatry at Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston Stanley J. Watson, associate director and research scientist, Mental Health Research Institute; associate chairman for research and Theophile Raphael Professor of Neurosciences, department of psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Alice S. Whittemore, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics, department of health research and policy, Stanford University School of Medicine Jean D. Wilson, Charles Cameron Sprague Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science; chief, division of endocrinology and metabolism, department of internal medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas Flossie Wong-Staal, Florence Seeley Riford Professor of AIDS Research and professor of medicine and biology, University of California, San Diego Tadataka Yamada, John G. Searle Professor and chairman, department of internal medicine, University of Michigan Anne B. Young, Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School; chief, Neurology Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Gordon H. DeFriese, professor of social medicine, epidemiology, and health policy and administration; director, Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Paul Nutting, director, Ambulatory Sentinel Practice Network, Denver John A. Oates Jr., professor of medicine and pharmacology; Thomas F. Frist, Sr. Professor and chairman, department of medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville Richard L. Simmons, George Vance Foster Professor of Surgery and chairman, department of surgery, University of Pittsburgh; associate dean for clinical affairs, School of Medicine; associate vice president for clinical affairs, University of Pittsburgh MedicalCenter Gerald N. Wogan, Underwood-Prescott Professor and director of toxicology, Whitaker College of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology William J. Hadlow, former research veterinarian, Rocky Mountain Labs (NIAID), Hamilton, Mont.

For One Newly Elected IoM Member, The Honor Is All In The Family

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Neeraja Sankaran

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December 1994

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