PHILADELPHIA—Six experts from the University of Pennsylvaniahave been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), one of the nation’s highest honors in the fields of health and medicine. Leaders in the fields of cardiology, nursing, palliative care, health justice, hematology and immunology areamong the 100 new members, elected by current NAM members. They now bring Penn membership in the prestigious group of health care thought leaders, clinicians, and researchers to 119.
This year’s new members:
Zoltan Pierre Arany, MD, PhD, Samuel Bellet Professor of Cardiology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. For elucidating the causes of peripartum cardiomyopathy, a leading cause of maternal death after pregnancy, and for his world leadership in quantitative metabolic studies to address mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases, including heart failure and insulin resistance.
Kathryn H. Bowles, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, professor and van Ameringen Chair in Nursing Excellence, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, was recognized for her work led to the development and validation of a decision-support methodology that identified patients who need post-acute care, ensuring that high-risk patients were monitored and received adequate post-acute care plans when they were discharged to their home. Bowles also led a groundbreaking study that resulted in an important new diagnostic code to the CDC annual update of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) list.
Scott D. Halpern, MD, PhD, MBioethics, John M. Eisenberg Professor in Medicine, professor of medical ethics and health policy and of epidemiology, and director, Palliative and Advanced Illness Research Center, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. For making seminal contributions to improving care near the end of life by combining conceptual and empirical work. Through trenchant ethical analyses and leadership of the field’s largest clinical trials, he has challenged old paradigms of serious illness decision-making and demonstrated how low-cost, scalable interventions can improve care quality and outcomes.
Eugenia South, MD, MSHP, Ralph Muller Presidential Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine; associate vice president of health justice, University of Pennsylvania Health System; and faculty director, Center for Health Justice, University of Pennsylvania. For being among the country's foremost leaders in developing and testing interventions to dismantle structural racism and prevent firearm injury in Black neighborhoods. She has made substantive, field-changing scientific and real-world contributions to advancing health via the lens of racial, environmental, and economic justice.
Alexis A. Thompson, MD, MPH, chief, Division of Hematology, and Elias Schwartz MD Endowed Chair in Hematology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; and professor of pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. For leadership in sickle cell disease (SCD), including creation of the first national SCD learning community, the largest SCD data repository, and collaborations to improve care for children with SCD in sub-Saharan Africa, and for her role in recent FDA approval of gene therapy and other novel SCD therapeutics.
E. John Wherry III, PhD,the Richard and Barbara Schiffrin President's Distinguished Professor and chair of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics in the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Wherry is a pioneer in the field of T cell exhaustion, the mechanisms by which T cell responses are attenuated during chronic infections and cancer. These exhausted T cells also have an emerging role in autoimmunity. He helped identify the role of the “checkpoint” molecule PD-1 and others for reinvigoration of exhausted T cells in cancer. His work has defined the underlying molecular and epigenetic mechanisms of exhausted T cells, and his laboratory has also recently focused on applying systems immunology approaches to define Immune Health patients across a spectrum of diseases. In 2020-2021, his laboratory established a new Immune Health Project to interrogate and use immune features to identify novel treatment opportunities.
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.