C. Ronald Kahn, M.D., Named Sixth President of Joslin Diabetes Center
[BOSTON, January 2000] — An internationally recognized diabetes researcher has been named the sixth President of Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, effective Jan. 13, 2000. The appointment of C. Ronald Kahn, M.D., as the new President was announced January 12, 2000 by Joslin Chairman of the Board Robert Patterson. Dr. Kahn will succeed Kenneth E. Quickel, Jr., M.D., who is retiring after serving as President of Joslin since 1987.
Dr. Quickel announced his plans to retire a year ago. A search committee was established at that time to identify his successor. Dr. Quickel will step down as Joslin president on January 12, 2000.
Joslin Diabetes Center, which was founded in 1898, and the Joslin Clinic are international leaders in diabetes treatment, research and patient and professional education affiliated with Harvard Medical School and the CareGroup healthcare system. In addition to its headquarters facility in Boston, the Center has affiliated diabetes treatment facilities across the country.
Dr. Kahn is currently Director of Joslin Diabetes Center, and the Mary K. Iacocca Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He also has served as Research Director of Joslin for more than 17 years. During his tenure the Joslin Diabetes Center research program has grown from $2 million to over $25 million, with a staff of over 220 people. In 1998 he was named to the additional role of Joslin Executive Vice President and Director, assuming responsibility for Joslin’s Boston-based clinical programs in addition to its research laboratories.
Dr. Kahn has received numerous honors and awards, including the highest scientific awards of the American Diabetes Association, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, International Diabetes Federation, the American Federation of Clinical Research, and the Endocrine Society of the U.S. In 1999, Dr. Kahn received two prestigious national honors — election to membership in the National Academy of Sciences and election to the Institute of Medicine, for his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. The Newton, MA, resident holds an honorary D.Sc. from the University of Paris.
Dr. Kahn also recently chaired the Congressionally-established Diabetes Research Working Group of diabetes experts that spent a year developing recommendations about Federal priorities for diabetes research to help reverse the diabetes epidemic. In a report to a U.S. Senate subcommittee 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. The DRWG recommended that an increase of $385 million over present National Institutes of Health funding be allocated for diabetes research for the coming year, and a further increase over the next four years to meet the challenges and opportunities available.
"While we are sad to see Ken retire, we are extremely fortunate to have Dr. Kahn as Joslin's next leader. He is known virtually world-wide as a leader in the fight against diabetes, and he has made enormous contributions to Joslin in his 18 years with us," Joslin Chairman of the Board Robert Patterson said. "He assumes this challenging position at an exciting time in our history, when discoveries are accelerating and being brought into clinical care. Ron is uniquely suited to keep Joslin at the forefront of diabetes research and care."
"The Joslin has a long and wonderful history," said Dr. Kahn. "I look forward to the challenge to build on this base and help move Joslin into the 21st century with innovation and excellence in clinical care and research."
"Over the past year since I announced that I would be retiring, the Trustees and staff of Joslin Diabetes Center have pulled together to assure an orderly and careful transition that has preserved the considerable momentum of the institution. Dr. Kahn knows Joslin and is dedicated to its mission, and he has the talent and skill to lead Joslin to new levels of accomplishment," Dr. Quickel said. "His appointment bodes well for Joslin and for people with diabetes everywhere."
Dr. Kahn is the preeminent investigator of insulin signal transduction and mechanisms of altered signaling in disease. His laboratory has produced multiple seminal observations regarding the insulin receptor kinase, its substrates, the molecular components of the insulin signaling network, and their alterations in disease. This body of work has revolutionized the field. Since the initial discovery by Dr. Kahn’s laboratory that the insulin receptor is an insulin-stimulated enzyme with protein tyrosine kinase activity, the Kahn laboratory has focused attention on how this early signal is converted to the final effects of insulin on metabolism and growth, how insulin signaling is altered in insulin resistant states such as type 2 diabetes, what the impact of genetics is on these functions, and how knowledge gleaned through these studies can be translated into new treatment methods for diabetes patients.
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.
Over the past 12 years as Joslin President, Dr. Quickel has overseen the growth of Joslin Diabetes Center’s overall budget from $17.2 million in 1987 to $63 million for 2000. During his tenure Joslin’s endowment has risen from $12.3 million before his arrival to $62 million in 1999 and a nationwide system of Joslin-affiliated diabetes treatment facilities from New York City to Seattle, WA, has been developed. Dr. Quickel also led the Center’s successful $45 million capital fundraising campaign during the mid 1990s, and the addition of three stories to the Joslin building, which takes up an entire city block in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area of Harvard-affiliated institutions. This past year he also oversaw the successful creation of the Joslin Clinic as a joint venture between Joslin Diabetes Center and CareGroup (parent company of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and five other Boston area hospitals), formally tying Joslin’s patient care activities to one of the largest healthcare systems in the Boston area.
Dr. Quickel has been a leader on the national level in advancing the cause of finding a cure for diabetes through his activities chairing the American Diabetes Association’s government relations committee and by testifying before government leaders about the importance of supporting diabetes treatment and research. He was a founding member of the National Diabetes Research Coalition and was among the first to call for doubling the federal dollars spent on funding diabetes research. During his tenure, Dr. Quickel traveled internationally to meet with world leaders in other countries — particularly in the Middle East and in Greece and Turkey — to discuss diabetes issues in their countries and to develop relationships between Joslin and the healthcare professionals in these countries. Over the past year, Dr. Quickel expanded upon the traditional two divisions at Joslin in Boston — Clinical and Research — by establishing a new division. The new Strategic Health Initiatives division is designed to coordinate efforts on behalf of Joslin’s many external programs, including its Affiliated Programs, the Continuing Medical Education program and the innovative Joslin Vision Network.
