Joslin Diabetes Center Director Elected to Institute of Medicine
BOSTON — October, 1999 — C. Ronald Kahn, M.D., Director of Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, has received one of American medicine's highest honors by being elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences' prestigious Institute of Medicine. Dr. Kahn is the Mary K. Iacocca Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and has served as Research Director at Joslin for more than 17 years.
Earlier this year Dr. Kahn was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. The NAS, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to furthering science and its use for the general welfare. The Academy was established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation, signed by Abraham Lincoln, which calls on the Academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology.
Established in 1970 as a unit of the NAS, members of the Institute of Medicine are from the biomedical sciences, health professions, behavioral and social sciences, administration, law, physical sciences and engineering. The Institute is concerned with protecting and advancing the health professions and science, promoting research and development related to health, and improving health care. As part of its mission, the Institute conducts studies of special problems. Institute members are elected based on their professional achievements and demonstrated interest, concern and involvement with critical issues affecting public health.
"I feel truly honored to have been elected to the Institute of Medicine," said Dr. Kahn, whose membership was effective Oct. 1. "I hope that I can continue to be of help to American medicine and the Institute with continued activity on problems and critical issues that affect the health of the public."
Dr. Kahn chaired the Congressionally-established Diabetes Research Working Group of diabetes experts that spent a year researching and deliberating on how federal dollars for diabetes research can be spent more effectively to help reverse the diabetes epidemic. In a report to a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate in October, Dr. Kahn reported that the death rate from diabetes has increased by 30 percent since 1980, affecting an estimated 16 million Americans and killing one American every three minutes. Dr. Kahn's group recommended an increase of $385 million over present National Institutes of Health funding be allocated for diabetes research, for a total of $827 million in funds to be distributed throughout all NIH institutes.
Dr. Kahn received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Louisville. After training in internal medicine at Washington University's Barnes Hospital, he worked at the National Institutes of Health for 11 years. There he rose to head the Section on Cellular and Molecular Physiology of the Diabetes Branch of NIH's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
The Newton, MA, resident has received many awards and honors. These include highest scientific and research awards from the American Federation of Clinical Research, the American Diabetes Association, the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and the International Diabetes Federation. He holds an honorary D.Sc. from the University of Paris.
