Institute of Medicine Appoints Three New Board Chairs

WASHINGTON – The Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies has appointed three new Chairs to lead the work of the IOM Boards on Health Sciences Policy, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, and Food and Nutrition. Board Chairs and members guide the work of IOM studies and other activities within their areas of responsibility. All terms began in 2003.

James Curran, professor of epidemiology and Dean of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, has become chair of the Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention  of the IOM.  Previously a Fellow at the Harvard Center for Community Health and Medical Care, Dr. Curran began his career with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  His past assignments include research positions with local health departments in Tennessee and Ohio, and faculty appointments at the University of Tennessee and Ohio State University School of Medicine. He is a member of the IOM and the National Academy of Sciences. He succeeds Robert B. Wallace, professor at the University of Iowa Colleges of Public Health and Medicine. The Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention focuses on issues affecting the health of the public, including population-based public health measures and the public health infrastructure.

Newly appointed as Board Chair of the Health Sciences Policy Board is Philip Pizzo, dean and professor of pediatrics, and microbiology and immunology, of the Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Pizzo has previously served as the physician-in-chief and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston and professor and Chair of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Pizzo's research efforts have focused on the treatment of childhood cancers and on the diagnosis, management, and prevention of infectious complications in immunocompromised hosts.  He and his colleagues pioneered the development of new treatments for children with symptomatic HIV infection and changed the process of drug development for children with catastrophic disease.  Positions he has held within the government include: clinical associate with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), pediatric oncology investigator at the National Institutes of Health, Chief of Pediatrics and Head of the Infectious Disease Section at NCI, and Acting Scientific Director of NCI's Division of Clinical Sciences. Dr. Pizzo is a member of both the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. He succeeds Bernie Lo, professor of medicine, University of California at San Francisco. The Board on Health Sciences Policy ensures that there is adequate attention to the science base underlying health and health care, as national and international needs evolve and change.

Catherine E. Woteki, dean of the College of Agriculture at Iowa State University, became chair of the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine in May 2003. Dr. Woteki has previously held appointments as senior research scientist with the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Maryland and professor of nutrition and food safety at the University of Nebraska.  Her extensive government experience includes service as USDA undersecretary for food safety and USDA deputy undersecretary for research, education, and economics, as well as leadership positions in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President and the National Center for Health Statistics in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Dr. Woteki is an IOM member and a former director of the Food and Nutrition Board. She succeeds Cutberto Garza, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University. The Food and Nutrition Board was established in 1940 to study issues of national importance pertaining to the safety and adequacy of the nation's food supply, to establish principles and guidelines for adequate nutrition, and to render authoritative judgment on the relationships among food intake, nutrition, and health, at the request of various agencies.

The nation turns to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies for science-based advice on issues of medicine and health. A nonprofit organization specifically created for this purpose as well as an honorific membership organization, the IOM was chartered in 1970 as a component of the National Academy of Sciences. The Institute provides a public service by working outside the framework of government to ensure independent guidance and to provide objective and scientifically informed analysis on matters of science, health, and medicine.