PHILADELPHIA - Harold I. Feldman, MD, MSCE, FACE, the George S. Pepper Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, chair of the department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, and director of the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, became president of the American College of Epidemiology on September 15.
The College is the professional organization of the nation’s epidemiologists—health professionals who examine patterns of diseases such as cancer, obesity, food poisoning, and influenza, and their causes, which range from lifestyle choices, to environmental exposures, to genetic factors.
In setting out his vision for the field and the College, its new president evoked epidemiology’s dual mission: “We must help prevent disease and we must aid the hundreds of millions whose chronic health conditions demand active management. We must help them to live better, more productive and longer lives,” Feldman said.
To serve that vision, one strategy Feldman proposes is to expand the College’s activities in clinical epidemiology—for instance by partnering with entities such as the National Center for Advancing Translational Science at the National Institutes of Health.
Feldman’s term as College president continues until fall 2017.
In addition, on January 1, 2017, Feldman will become editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases, the official journal of the National Kidney Foundation. In this new role, Feldman will aim to expand the international content of this highly rated subspecialty journal by recruiting editors from outside North America. He also plans to broaden its content by featuring such topics as health policy, patient-centered outcomes research, transplantation, and pediatric nephrology.
Feldman, who is a board-certified physician in internal medicine and nephrology, earned his medical and undergraduate degrees from Boston University and a Master of Science in clinical epidemiology from the Perelman School of Medicine. He is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the American Epidemiological Society. Feldman’s research, which focuses on diseases of the kidney, has been supported by more than $50 million in federal grants. Feldman has led many large epidemiological research initiatives in chronic kidney disease, including the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort Study, known as the “Framingham Study of Renal Disease.” He also directs a number of NIH-funded institutional training grants in clinical epidemiology.
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.