National Academy of Medicine

Coordinates: 38°53′48″N 77°01′10″W / 38.8968°N 77.0194°W

National Academy of Medicine

Formation	1970
Type	NGO
Website	http://www.nam.edu

The National Academy of Medicine (NAM, formerly the Institute of Medicine), an American non-profit, non-governmental organization, is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine along with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the National Research Council (NRC). Its provides national advice on issues relating to biomedical science, medicine, and health, and serves as an adviser to the nation to improve health aims to provide unbiased, evidence-based, and authoritative information and advice concerning health and science policy to policy-makers, professionals, leaders in every sector of society, and the public at large.

Operating outside the framework of the U.S. federal government, it relies on a volunteer workforce of scientists and other experts, operating under a formal peer-review system. As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and continuing achievements in a relevant field as well as for their willingness to participate actively.

History

The institute was founded in 1970, under the congressional charter of the National Academy of Sciences as the Institute of Medicine.^[1] On April 28, 2015, NAS membership voted in favor of reconstituting the membership of the IOM as a new National Academy of Medicine and establishing a new division on health and medicine within the NRC that has the program activities of the IOM at its core. These changes took effect on July 1, 2015.^[2]

Overview

The National Academies attempt to obtain authoritative, objective, and scientifically balanced answers to difficult questions of national importance.^[3] The work is conducted by committees of volunteer scientists—leading national and international experts—who serve without compensation. Committees are composed in an attempt to assure the requisite expertise and to avoid bias or conflict of interest. Every report produced by committee undergoes extensive review and evaluation by a group of external experts who are anonymous to the committee, and whose names are revealed only once the study is published. Victor Dzau is President and Chairman of the Council. His six-year term began on July 1, 2014. The Interim Leonard D. Schaeffer Executive Officer is Clyde J. Behney.

The majority of studies and other activities are requested and funded by the federal government. Private industry, foundations, and state and local governments also initiate studies, as does the academy itself. Reports are made available online for free by the publishing arm of the United States National Academies, the National Academies Press, in multiple formats.

The academy is both an honorific membership organization and a policy research organization. Its members, elected on the basis of their professional achievement and commitment to service, serve without compensation in the conduct of studies and other activities on matters of significance to health. Election to active membership is both an honor and a commitment to serve in Institute affairs. The bylaws specify that no more than 80 new members shall be elected annually, including 10 from outside the United States. The announcement of newly elected members occurs at the Annual Meeting in October. As of October 20, 2015, the number of regular members plus international and emeritus members is 2,012.^[1] An unusual diversity of talent among Institute members is assured by the charter stipulation that at least one-quarter be selected from outside the health professions, from such fields as the natural, social, and behavioral sciences, as well as law, administration, engineering, and the humanities.

The Food and Nutrition Board is body within the NAM set up to study the safety and adequacy of the U.S. food supply. It publishes principles and guidelines for good nutrition. It judges the relationship between nutrition, good health and disease prevention. It was established in 1940.^[4]

The New York Times called the IOM the United States' "most esteemed and authoritative adviser on issues of health and medicine, and its reports can transform medical thinking around the world."^[5]

Notable members, past and present

• Harold Amos, microbiologist and professor
• Nancy Andrews, Dean of Duke University School of Medicine
• Elizabeth Blackburn, biologist
• Robert Califf, cardiologist, FDA deputy Commissioner
• Ben Carson, columnist and retired American neurosurgeon, former director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital
• Anthony Cerami, pioneering medical researcher
• Dennis S. Charney, dean of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City
• Sarah Cleaveland, veterinary epidemiologist
• Jewel Plummer Cobb, cell biologist and President of California State University, Fullerton, 1981–90
• Francis Collins, geneticist, leader in the Human Genome Project and NIH Director
• Jim Collins, synthetic biology pioneer and MacArthur genius
• Kenneth L. Davis, author, medical researcher and CEO of Mount Sinai Medical Center
• Stanton A. Glantz, Professor of Medicine (UCSF) and prominent tobacco control researcher and activist
• Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• Maurice Hilleman, microbiologist
• David Ho, pioneer in the use of protease inhibitors in treating HIV-infected patients
• Leroy Hood, winner of the 2003 Lemelson-MIT Prize
• Arthur Kellermann, professor and founding chairman of the department of Emergency Medicine at Emory University
• Herbert Kleber, professor of psychiatry, Yale University.
• Philip J. Landrigan, pediatrician and children's environmental health advocate
• Jeffrey Lieberman, chair of psychiatry, Columbia University; president, American Psychiatric Association
• Rudolph Leibel, MD, professor at Columbia University whose co-discovery at Rockefeller University of the hormone leptin, and cloning of the leptin and leptin receptor genes, has had a major role in the area of understanding human obesity.^[6][7]
• Susan Lindquist, a molecular biologist and former Director of the Whitehead Institute
• Howard Markel, George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine and Director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan
• Maclyn McCarty, youngest member of the research team responsible for the Avery-MacLeod-McCarty experiment
• Sherilyn S. McCoy, CEO of Avon Products and former Vice Chairman of Johnson & Johnson
• Ruslan Medzhitov, professor of immunobiology at Yale University, co-discoverer of human Toll Like Receptors (TLRs) and winner of the inaugural Else Kröner-Fresenius-Foundation award in 2013
• Mario J. Molina, recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Herbert Needleman, pediatrician and psychiatrist
• Carl F. Nathan, Professor of Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis at Weill Cornell Medical College. Winner of the inaugural Anthony Cerami Award in Translational Medicine
• Peter R. Orszag, 37th Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Barack Obama
• Nicholas A. Peppas, pioneer of biomaterials and drug delivery
• Samir M. Chebaro, Stanford Medical Center, Dean’s office Child Care Task Force
• Patricia Flatley Brennan, professor of Nursing and Industrial Engineering at University of Wisconsin–Madison, and theme leader at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.
• Frederick Redlich, dean of the Yale School of Medicine from 1967 to 1972
• James Rothman, winner of the 2002 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
• Jeffrey Sachs, economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University
• David A. Savitz, director of the Disease Prevention and Public Health Institute at the Mount Sinai Medical Center
• Shirley M. Tilghman, former president of Princeton University
• Mary Wakefield, appointed administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) by President Barack Obama in February 2009
• Douglas C. Wallace, geneticist and pioneer of human mitochondrial genetics
• Sheldon Weinbaum, biomedical engineer, biofluid mechanician and Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, at The City College of New York
• Kern Wildenthal, former president of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School
• William Julius Wilson, sociologist
• Elias Zerhouni, former executive vice-dean of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of the National Institutes of Health under George W. Bush
• Shimon Glick, Ben Gurion University, endocrinology, internal medicine, medical education and medical ethics.
• David O. Meltzer, Professor of Medicine and health economist at University of Chicago

References

1. "About the NAM". National Academy of Medicine. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
2. "Institute of Medicine to Become National Academy of Medicine". The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
3. "Our Study Process". National Academy of Medicine. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
4. Food and Nutrition Board , National Academy of Sciences. Accessed March 2016
5. Gardiner Harris (August 25, 2011). "Vaccine Cleared Again as Autism Culprit" The New York Times.
6. Shell E (January 1, 2002). "Chapter 4: On the Cutting Edge". The Hungry Gene: The Inside Story of the Obesity Industry. Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 978-1422352434.
7. Shell E (January 1, 2002). "Chapter 5: Hunger". The Hungry Gene: The Inside Story of the Obesity Industry. Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 978-1422352434.

External links

• Official website
• The Institute of Medicine in its new form
• List of IOM reports
• List of IOM activities