BOSTON – (November 3, 2014) – Joslin Diabetes Center has appointed S. Sethu K. Reddy, M.D., MBA, FRCPC, FACP, MACE, as the new Chief of the Adult Diabetes Section. Dr. Reddy is a well-known clinician-scientist with significant leadership experience in academia and pharmaceutical industry. He possesses an extensive knowledge into the global healthcare landscape with the proven ability to lead diverse teams in a variety of organizations.
Dr. Reddy returns to Joslin where he was a post-doctoral fellow in Cellular and Molecular Physiology in C. Ronald Kahn’s, M.D., Chief Academic Officer and the Mary K. Iacocca Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, laboratory in the 1980s.
“It’s great to be back at Joslin after a 26-year leave of absence,” says Dr. Reddy. “It’s an exciting and rare opportunity to be working with the single largest team in the world dedicated to improving the lives of those with diabetes. I spent 1985-88 in Ron’s lab and the skills I developed in his lab were invaluable in research as well as clinical medicine. Coming back to Joslin after my leadership experiences in Canada, Cleveland Clinic and at Merck, brings a sense of nostalgia, but also a sense of urgency to contribute to Joslin’s core mission of helping those with diabetes.”
Dr. Reddy comes to Joslin from Merck where he wielded his international influence as the Vice President for Global Medical Affairs. While in this position, Dr. Reddy lead efforts with the top 50 global customers in addition to developing solutions and services “beyond the pill.” Dr. Reddy successfully leveraged his understanding of health care eco-system changes and the operational models of public and private payers, retailers/distributors and large stakeholder groups during his time at Merck.
Prior to working at Merck, Dr. Reddy served as the Chairman of the Cleveland Clinic Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism Department, where he showcased his outstanding academic leadership. During his time at the Cleveland Clinic, he dramatically improved the stature of the department from the ranking in U.S. News & World Report of 22nd in 1996 to 6th in 2006 and now to 2nd. While there, Dr. Reddy also initiated and subsequently chaired the Endocrinology Board Review Course, which continues to be highly regarded.
“Sethu brings a wealth of experience and leadership to his new role where he will be instrumental in guiding our largest clinical section at Joslin to new heights to meet the challenges of an evolving healthcare environment nationally and internationally,” says Robert A. Gabbay, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President at Joslin and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “His background will enable him to guide our clinicians to work more closely with our research colleagues to further strengthen the translation of bench to practice through clinical trials.”
Dr. Reddy's main areas of interest are the epidemiology of diabetes and its complications as well as clinical endocrinology, in particular particularly obesity and thyroid disorders. He is also interested in patient-centric care, specifically exploring how to incorporate technology into clinical care without losing the humanity of the physician-patient relationship.
He has written and co-authored more than 140 articles, abstracts and book chapters on various aspects of endocrinology, including the Cleveland Clinic Guide to Diabetes. Dr. Reddy was an associate editor of the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine and has lectured extensively on the management of diabetes and its complications, as well as heart disease, obesity, thyroid disease in addition to other topics. He is now an Associate Editor for Clinical Diabetes and Endocrinology.
Dr. Reddy has been elected twice to the National Board of Directors of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) and has been actively involved in clinically relevant projects with the AACE since 1996.
Throughout his career, Dr. Reddy has received many honors, such as the Florence Nightingale Award by the Cleveland Clinic for Physician Collaboration and the distinction of Mastership in the American College of Endocrinology in 2007.
Dr. Reddy received his medical degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland as well as his MBA from Cleveland State University. After completing an Internal Medicine Residency at Memorial University of Newfoundland, he went on to complete a Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism Fellowship at the University of Toronto and a Research Fellowship in Cellular and Molecular Physiology at Joslin. Dr. Reddy has maintained an active endocrinology clinical practice at the Cleveland Clinic while working at Merck.
“We have close to 30 physicians and providers that serve adults from near and far at Joslin and they are some of the most experienced clinicians in diabetes in the nation,” explains Dr. Reddy. “My role will be to collaborate with them to provide the world’s most advanced diabetes care, increase our clinical research activity and to have the team be recognized for teaching diabetology. There are so many exciting initiatives happening at Joslin, and I look forward to helping the Adult Diabetes Clinicians engage in these initiatives and integrate any advances into our clinical practice.”
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