AAAS and the Food and Drug Law Institute present
Colloquium II: Personalized Medicine in an Era of Health Care Reform
Welcome and Introductions
- Mark S. Frankel, PhD, Director, Program on Scientific Freedom, Responsibility and Law, AAAS
- Peter Agre, MD, President, AAAS and Director, Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute
Implementing Personalized Medicine
- Chair: Peter Agre, MD, President, AAAS and Director, Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute
- Speaker: Francis Collins, MD, PhD, Director of the National Institutes of Health
The FDA Perspective
- Chair: James Kelly, JD, President and CEO, Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI)
- Speaker: Margaret A. Hamburg, MD, Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Comparative Effectiveness Research and Personalized Medicine
- Chair: Deborah Runkle, Senior Program Associate, AAAS
- Speaker: Harold Sox, MD, Editor Emeritus, Annals of Internal Medicine, Adjunct Professor, Dartmouth Medical School
Panel: Health IT and Personalized Medicine
- Chair: Michael Stebbins, PhD, Assistant Director for Biotechnology, Office of Science and Technology Policy, The White House
Policy Implications
- Speaker: John Glaser, PhD, Senior Advisor, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Health IT as a Research Tool
- Speaker: Rex Chisholm, PhD, Dean for Research, Center for Genetic Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
Health IT in Clinical Practice
- Speaker: Linda Fischetti, RN, MS, Chief Health Informatics Officer, Veterans Health Administration, US Department of Veterans Affairs
Legal and Ethical Considerations
- Speaker: Mark A. Rothstein, JD, Herbert F. Boehl Chair of Law and Medicine, University of Louisville School of Medicine
Biomarkers and Clinical Care
- Chair: Mark S. Frankel, PhD, Director, Program on Scientific Freedom, Responsibility and Law, AAAS
- Speaker: Mark J. Ratain, MD, University of Chicago
Panel: Case Studies
- Chair: Katrina L. Kelner, PhD, Editor, Science Translational Medicine, AAAS
- Directing the Course of Treatment – development of drugs to treat disease subgroups (lung cancer). Speaker: William Pao, MD, Assistant Director, Personalized Cancer Medicine, Vanderbilt University
- Getting the Dose Right (Plavix). Speaker: Alan Shuldiner, MD, John L. Whitehurst Professor of Medicine, University of Maryland Medical Center
- Avoiding Adverse Events (Abacavir). Speaker: Hawazin Faruki, DrPH, Vice President, Clinical Development, Laboratory Corporation of America
Lessons Learned from Case Studies
- Speaker: Steven D. Averbuch, MD, Vice President, Oncology Transition Strategy & Development and Head, Pharmacodiagnostics, Global Clinical Research, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
Audience/Panel Interaction: Making Difficult Choices
- Chair: Joseph G. Perpich, MD, Chair, AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility and President, JG Perpich, LLC.
- Physician: Nilofer Azad, MD, Assistant Professor, Gastrointestinal Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University
- Patient Advocate: Nancy Davenport-Ennis, Founder and CEO, National Patient Advocate Foundation
Speaker and Session Chair Biographies
Dr. Agre received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins in 1974 and completed his residency at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and an Oncology Fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He joined the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine faculty in 1984 and rose to the rank of Professor of Biological Chemistry and Professor of Medicine. In 2005, Agre moved to the Duke University School of Medicine where he served as Vice Chancellor for Science and Technology and James B. Duke Professor of Cell Biology. Agre returned to Johns Hopkins in January 2008, where he is University Professor and Director of the Malaria Research Institute at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
In 2003, Agre shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering aquaporins, a family of water channel proteins found throughout nature and is responsible for numerous physiological processes in humans and is implicated in multiple clinical disorders. Agre has received other honors including 15 honorary doctorates, Commandership in the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit from King Harald V, and the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America. Agre is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine for which he chaired and serves on the Committee on Human Rights. In February 2009, Agre became President of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences.
Dr. Averbuch is a medical oncologist with over 19 years of US and international clinical research experience at three leading pharmaceutical companies. He is currently a Vice President, Oncology Transition Strategy & Development and Head, Pharmacodiagnostics, Global Clinical Research, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company based in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.
Dr. Averbuch received his M.D. from the University of Illinois, Chicago in 1979. Following training in Internal Medicine at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois, Dr. Averbuch was a Medical Oncology Fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) from 1982-1985. From 1985-1987 he held a joint appointment at the NCI and as a Research Assistant Professor in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at the Uniform Services University of the Health Sciences. In 1987, Dr. Averbuch was appointed Assistant Professor and Assistant Attending in the Department of Neoplastic Diseases, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Hospital in New York City.
In 1990, Dr. Averbuch joined Merck Research Laboratories, and then he was with AstraZeneca, Wilmington, DE from 1995-2003, where he led the global development of several early stage oncology products. In particular, he led the global medical development of IRESSA, a novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. From September, 2003 to June, 2005, Dr. Averbuch was Executive Director and Therapeutic Area Head for oncology at Merck Research Laboratories, where he played a primary role in building a new oncology clinical research group.
Dr. Azad is an Assistant Professor of Oncology and a member of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Program within the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at (SKCCC) Johns Hopkins Medical Institute. She completed her fellowship in Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute at the NIH and became a member of the Johns Hopkins faculty in July 2008. Since joining the faculty of the at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Azad is the PI of numerous early phase clinical trials in solid tumors and gastrointestinal cancers. She is the co-leader of the newly restructured phase I clinical research program at the SKCCC with Dr. Michael Carducci. With colleagues at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and Emory University Cancer Center, she has co-founded the TREAT (Translational Research & Experimental Therapeutics) consortium dedicated to increasing minority access to phase I studies. She is a member of the GI subcommittee in the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and within the Mayo-led Phase 2 Consortium, a NCI funded mechanism to support the conduct of phase 2 studies, and the PI of a trial through that group.
Dr. Chisholm is Dean for Research, the Adam and Richard T. Lind Professor of Medical Genetics and the Director of the Northwestern University Biomedical Informatics Center at the Feinberg School of Medicine. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Michigan, where he was a trainee of the NIH training program in Genetics. Since 1984, Dr. Chisholm has been on the faculty of Northwestern University. Author of over 150 scientific papers and abstracts, Chisholm has served as a member of scientific review committees for the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society and currently serves as a member of the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research. He also served as Director of the Biomedical Hands-on-Laboratory of the Science Writing Fellowships Program at the Marine Biological Laboratory. Chisholm received a Basil O’Connor Fellowship from the March of Dimes and is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Between 2000 and September 2007, Dr. Chisholm served as the founding director of the Center for Genetic Medicine, a partnership between Northwestern University, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Children’s Memorial Hospital and Evanston Northwestern Healthcare that facilitates the development of new genetic knowledge and its application to medicine. In July 2007, he was appointed Dean for Research for the Feinberg School of Medicine.
Currently his research focuses on bioinformatics, particularly characterization and annotation of genome sequences and the use of databases and the internet to present genome information. In addition Dr Chisholm leads a group developing methods that use electronic health records (EHR) for research purposes. He is an NIH funded member of the gene Ontology Consortium and leads a major biobanking effort at Northwestern University, NUgene. This project enrolls research participants in a study focused on investigating the genetic contributions to human disease, therapeutic outcomes and gene-environment interactions. NUgene is a participant in the NHGRI-funded eMERGE network– a network of HER-linked biobanks, of which Dr. Chisholm is currently chair of the steering committee. Dr. Chisholm also has a strong interest in the public understanding of science. He speaks regularly to lay audiences about issues of biomedical research and especially genetics and stems cells. In addition to fostering public understanding of the science behind these timely research areas, he is also interested in stimulating a public dialog regarding the impact these technologies will have on society and on our lives.
Francis S. Collins was officially sworn in on Monday, August 17, 2009 as the 16th director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Collins was nominated by President Barack Obama on July 8, and was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 7.
Dr. Collins, a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project, served as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the NIH from 1993-2008. This remarkable international project culminated in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book.
In addition to his leadership as the NHGRI director, Dr. Collins’ own research laboratory has discovered a number of important genes, including those responsible for cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, Huntington’s disease, a familial endocrine cancer syndrome, and most recently, genes for type 2 diabetes and the gene that causes Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome.
Dr. Collins has a longstanding interest in the interface between science and faith, and has written about this in The Language of God, which spent many weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. He is the author of a new book on personalized medicine, The Language of Life, to be published in early 2010.
Dr. Collins received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Yale University and an M.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to the NIH in 1993, he spent nine years on the faculty of the University of Michigan, where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Collins was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007. In a White House ceremony on October 7, 2009, Dr. Collins received the National Medal of Science, the highest honor bestowed on scientists by the United States government.
Nancy Davenport-Ennis is one of the nation’s leading patient advocacy experts on issues related to patients’ health care access challenges. In 1996, she founded the Patient Advocate Foundation based in Newport News, Virginia, which provides professional case management services to millions of insured, under-insured and uninsured patients facing chronic, debilitating or life-threatening diseases. Today, PAF has offices all across the country and has grown to manage nearly 50,000 cases last year alone. PAF now offers more than 20 specialized programs, and partners with other leading organizations like the American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen and the Lance Armstrong Foundation, among others. She also founded the National Patient Advocate Foundation in Washington, DC, which strives to improve access to patient care through federal and state regulatory and public policy efforts.
In addition to serving as the Chief Executive Officer of PAF and NPAF, Davenport-Ennis serves on the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERTs) Committee and the National Institutes of Health’s Open Ended Working Group (OEWG). She has also previously served on national commissions for the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, C-Change, and One Voice Against Cancer, and has testified before Senate and House Committees on health care access issues confronting patients.
Davenport-Ennis also serves on the Board of Directors for Friends of Cancer Research, the Advisory Board for the Intercultural Cancer Council, the Stand Up to Cancer Advisory Council, the External Board of Review for the Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis, Missouri, and on advisory boards for several cancer care trade publications. She has also received national awards from Yoplait and the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, US Oncology, and the Association of Community Cancer Centers in recognition of her tireless advocacy efforts on behalf of America’s cancer patients of which Nancy is one since 1989.
Dr. Faruki is a graduate of the University of North Carolina with a doctorate of public health in Laboratory Practice and a fellowship in clinical microbiology from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. She is currently Vice President for clinical development at Laboratory Corporation of America in North Carolina. She has over fifteen years of experience with molecular diagnostic testing in a variety of settings, including an academic medical center, a small regional laboratory, as well as a large reference lab. She has participated in the successful introduction of many molecular infectious disease diagnostics and is now focused on introduction of pharmacogenetics, companion diagnostics, and personalized medicine applications. She has extensive experience in reviewing and assessing new diagnostic applications, organizing studies to validate new testing, securing CPT coding and fair reimbursement for new tests, educating physicians regarding new test applications, and in successful implementation of new diagnostics. She is also the author of several peer reviewed publications, most recently on introduction of pharmacogenetic tests.
Ms. Fischetti is the Chief Health Informatics Officer for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Health Information at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In this role, she leads VHA’s health information standards and interoperability, innovation, informatics, and the broadly recognized electronic Personal Health Record and barcode programs. She also serves as VHA’s liaison to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and is designated as VHA’s representative to many federal and private-sector health information technology activities, including the Nationwide Health Information Network activities.
Ms. Fischetti has diverse experience implementing health information technology, as a health information systems architect, and as senior project manager for clinical information technology development. Her articles on informatics topics have been published in numerous publications. She is an advisor to the University of Maryland School of Nursing Informatics Program. She also is an elected Member at Large of the Health Level 7 Board of Directors, is a federally-appointed Board of Director member of the Health Information Technology Standards Panel and is currently representing the Secretary of the Department of Veteran Affairs on the Board of the National eHealth Collaborative.
Dr. Frankel has been director of the Scientific Freedom, Responsibility and Law Program at AAAS since 1990. He develops and manages AAAS’s activities related to professional ethics, science and society, and science and law. At AAAS he has directed projects on research integrity and scientific misconduct; human enhancement; the ethical and legal implications of genetic testing; an examination of errors in health care organizations; the ethical, religious and policy implications of human stem cell research; gene doping in sport; and the implications of advances in neuroscience research for the legal system, among others. He is a member of the Science and Ethics Advisory Group for Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel, Switzerland.
Dr. Frankel is a former member of the Board of Directors of the National Patient Safety Foundation, and currently serves on the Board of the Food and Drug Law Institute and the Center for the Study of Law, Science and Technology at Arizona State University. He is on the editorial boards of Science and Engineering Ethics, Ethics & Behavior, Professional Ethics, and the Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics. He is editor of AAAS’s quarterly publication, Professional Ethics Report, and a Fellow of AAAS.
Dr. Glaser is Senior Advisor, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the Department of Health and Human Services. Previously he was Vice-President and Chief Information Officer, Partners HealthCare System, Inc., Vice-President, Information Systems at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, manager of the Healthcare Information Systems consulting practice at Arthur D. Little. Dr. Glaser was the founding Chairman of College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and is past President of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). He is past-President of the eHealth Initiative and has been a member of the Board of the American Medical Informatics Association. Dr. Glaser is an incorporator of AHIC 2.0. He is the co-Chair of the National Alliance for Healthcare Information Technology and is a Senior Advisor to the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.
He is a fellow of HIMSS, CHIME and the American College of Medical Informatics. He has been awarded the John Gall award for healthcare CIO of the year. CHIME has established a scholarship in Dr. Glaser’s name. He was elected to CIO Magazine’s CIO Hall of Fame. Partners HealthCare has received several industry awards for its effective and innovative use of information technology.
Dr. Glaser has published over one hundred and fifty articles and three books on the strategic application of information technology in healthcare. He holds a Ph.D. in Healthcare Information Systems from the University of Minnesota.
President Barack Obama nominated Dr. Hamburg on March 25, 2009, and she was confirmed on May 18, 2009 by a unanimous Senate voice vote to become the 21st Food and Drug Commissioner. Dr. Hamburg graduated from Harvard Medical School, and completed her residency in internal medicine at what is now New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center. She conducted research on neuroscience at Rockefeller University in New York, studied neuropharmacology at the National Institute of Mental Health on the NIH campus in Bethesda, and later focused on AIDS research as Assistant Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
In 1990, Dr. Hamburg joined the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as Deputy Health Commissioner, and within a year was promoted to Commissioner, a position she held until 1997. During her tenure she held academic positions at Columbia University School of Public Health and Cornell University Medical College. Dr. Hamburg’s accomplishments as New York’s top public health official included improved services for women and children, a needle-exchange program to reduce the spread of HIV, the initiation the first public health bio-terrorism defense program in the nation, and curbing the spread of tuberculosis.
In 1997, at the request of President Clinton, she accepted the position of Assistant Secretary for Policy and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In 2001, Dr. Hamburg became Vice President for Biological Programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a foundation dedicated to reducing the threat to public safety from nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. Since 2005, Dr. Hamburg has served as the Initiative’s Senior Scientist.
James Kelly is the President & CEO of the Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI) a leading not-for-profit educational organization serving professionals who need to understand the laws, regulations, and policies affecting food, drugs, cosmetics and other healthcare technology products, including individuals active within government, industry, law, health care and academia sectors. Before joining FDLI, Mr. Kelly was President & CEO at Carl Zeiss, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of the German-based manufacturer of precision optics. At Zeiss, Mr. Kelly held a variety of executive positions, including general manager for the Microscopy Group, general counsel and vice-president corporate marketing. Prior to Zeiss, he served as vice-president, general counsel and, later, head of human resources at Siemens Medical, one of the largest health care industry suppliers in the world. He has also served as vice-chairman of the German-American Chamber of Commerce in New York. Mr. Kelly began his career in the general practice of law in New York City after earning his JD from Villanova Law School.
Dr. Kelner is the editor of Science‘s new journal Science Translational Medicine. Prior to that, she was Deputy Editor for Life Sciences at Science, the weekly journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Dr Kelner has a PhD in cell biology/neuroscience from Baylor College of Medicine, and did a postdoctoral fellowship at the Marine Biomedical Institute at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. She switched to publishing over 20 years ago, when she started at Science as a manuscript editor for research papers in neuroscience. Since then she has held several other positions at Science: Editor of Biology Perspectives, Deputy Editor for Commentary, and Deputy Editor for Life Sciences where she oversaw the editorial staff that handles research papers in the life sciences.
Dr. Pao is a physician-scientist with a special interest in thoracic oncology. Dr. Pao’s research focuses on identification of genes involved in the pathogenesis of lung tumors and stratifying tumors into clinically relevant molecular subsets. Using information derived from these experiments, Dr. Pao seeks to improve treatment for patients with non-small cell lung cancer. His research has yielded important insights into mechanisms of lung tumor sensitivity and resistance to inhibitors of the epidermal growth factor receptor.
Dr. Pao is the author of over 50 publications, is actively involved in numerous professional associations including the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and has served as a journal editor for PLoS Medicine, Cancer Research, and the Journal of Clinical Oncology. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale University.
Dr. Perpich, a psychiatrist and lawyer, is President of JGPerpich, LLC, an educational and professional services company that promotes collaborative research and training programs in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. Dr. Perpich has held key leadership positions in biomedical research and education across multiple sectors, including philanthropy, industry, and government. Dr. Perpich was Vice President for Grants and Special Programs (1987-2000) at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), where he created and managed the $100 million annual grants program for science education and international biomedical research. Prior to his appointment at HHMI, he was vice president for planning and business development at two biotechnology companies. Dr. Perpich also served as the Associate Director for Program Planning and Evaluation at NIH (1976 to 1981), where he directed government-wide activities related to recombinant DNA research and regulatory policies. Dr. Perpich is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Medical School. He completed his residency in psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). At the same time, Dr. Perpich studied law at Georgetown University and received his J.D. in 1974. Dr. Perpich is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS.).
Dr. Ratain received his medical degree from the Yale University School of Medicine (M.D., 1980). His postgraduate training was completed at Johns Hopkins Hospital (Internal Medicine, 1980-3) and the University of Chicago Hospitals (Hematology/Oncology, 1983-6). He has been a faculty member in the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago since 1986 and is currently the Leon O. Jacobson Professor of Medicine. In addition, he chairs the interdepartmental Committee on Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacogenomics, and also serves as the Associate Director for Clinical Sciences in the University’s Cancer Research Center.
Dr. Ratain’s research focuses on the development of new oncology drugs and diagnostics, and he leads international efforts in phase I clinical trials, pharmacogenetics, and clinical trial methodology. He has over 300 publications and leads both the Pharmacogenetics of Anticancer Agents Research Group and the University of Chicago’s phase I oncology trials program. He served as the first chair of the Steering Committee of the National Institutes of Health Pharmacogenetics Research Network, as well as one of the first co-chairs of the National Cancer Institute Investigational Drug Steering Committee. He also serves as co-Editor of Pharmacogenetics and Genomics, and is a past Associate Editor of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. He is the recipient of multiple awards, and most recently received the Director’s Service Award from the National Cancer Institute, the Award for Clinical Service from the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Emil J. Freireich Award for Clinical Research from MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Mark Rothstein holds the Herbert F. Boehl Chair of Law and Medicine and is the Founding Director of the Institute for Bioethics, Health Policy and Law at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He received his J.D. from Georgetown University.
Professor Rothstein has concentrated his research on bioethics, genetics, health privacy, public health law, and employment law. From 1999-2008, he served as Chair of the Subcommittee on Privacy and Confidentiality of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, the statutory advisory committee to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on health information policy. He is past president of the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics.
He is the author or editor of 19 books and nearly 200 book chapters and articles in leading journals of bioethics, law, medicine, and public health.
Deborah Runkle is a Senior Program Associate at AAAS. She provides staff support for the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, is the Associate Staff Officer for the National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists (a joint standing committee of AAAS and the Science and Technology Law Section of the American Bar Association), and is Staff Liaison for the AAAS Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award.
She is interested in issues at the intersection of science and society and science and law. Issues that she is currently focused on include personalized medicine, digital technologies, judicial education in neuroscience, scientific expertise in the courts, forensics, and the use of animals in research.
Dr. Shuldiner received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA; 1984). He obtained his residency training in internal medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York, and his postdoctoral fellowship training in the Diabetes Branch at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. From 1991 to 1996, Dr. Shuldiner was a faculty member in the Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In 1997, he moved to the University of Maryland School of Medicine where is now the John Whitehurst Professor of Medicine, Director of the Program in Genetics and Genomic Medicine, and Head of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition. He is also an Investigator at the Baltimore Veterans Administration Geriatrics Research and Education Clinical Center.
Dr. Shuldiner’s major research interests lie in the molecular biology and genetics age-related diseases, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease, common disorders that contribute significantly to mortality, morbidity, and functional loss in the elderly. He also works on the pharmaco- and nutri-genomics of these disorders. He is best known for his studies in the Old Order Amish, a homogeneous founder population ideal for genetic studies. His multidisciplinary research team uses state-of-the-art molecular genetic statistical and epidemiological methods, including both candidate gene and genome wide approaches. He has authored more than 190 original articles in leading journals and 50 reviews and book chapters. Dr. Shuldiner is the recipient of a number of awards, including the prestigious Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholar award, Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar award, and 2006 University of Maryland Founders Day Researcher of the Year award. He serves on several steering and advisory committees and study sections related to his expertise in complex disease genetics and translation of genetic discoveries to the clinical setting.
Dr. Sox graduated from Harvard Medical School. After serving as a medical intern and resident at Massachusetts General Hospital, he spent two years doing research in immunology at the National Institutes of Health and three years at Dartmouth Medical School, where he served as chief medical resident and began his studies of medical decision making. He then spent 15 years on the faculty of Stanford University School of Medicine, where he was the chief of the division of general internal medicine and director of ambulatory care at the Palo Alto VA Medical Center. In 1988, he returned to Dartmouth where he served for thirteen years as Joseph M. Huber Professor of Medicine and chair of the department of medicine. He was the Editor of the Annals of Internal Medicine from 2001 to 2009.
Dr. Sox was the President of the American College of Physicians during 1998-1999. He chaired the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force from 1990 to 1995, the Institute of Medicine Committee to Study HIV Transmission through Blood Products, and the Institute of Medicine Committee on Health Effects Associated with Exposures Experienced in the Gulf War. He chaired the Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee of the Center for Medicare Services from 1999 to 2003 and served on the Report Review Committee of the National Research Council from 2000 to 2005. He recently chaired the Institute of Medicine committee to set national priorities for Comparative Effectiveness Research. He also chairs the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Physician Faculty Scholars Program and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in 1993 and to fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2002. His books include Medical Decision Making, Common Diagnostic Tests: Selection and Interpretation, and HIV and the Blood Supply: an Analysis of Crisis Decisionmaking.
Dr. Stebbins is Assistant Director for Biotechnology at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Before joining OSTP he was the Director of Biology Policy for the Federation of American Scientists. He is a co-founder of Scientists and Engineers for America, and a former Adjunct Professor of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. He has worked as a Legislative Fellow for Senator Harry Reid and on policy issues at the National Human Genome Research Institute. Dr. Stebbins also worked as a senior editor for the journal Nature Genetics and as a science writer for Reuters. He is the author of the book Sex, Drugs and DNA.He received a Ph.D. in Genetics while working at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory