Sheila M. Rothman is a Professor of Public Health in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at the Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University and Deputy Director of the Center for the Study of Society and Medicine at the Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons.

Trained in social history, she received her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Her research has explored American attitudes and policies past and present toward women, persons with mental disabilities, chronic diseases, and those at risk for genetic disease. Her books include Woman’s Proper Place: a History of Changing Ideals and Practices 1870 to the Present (1978), Living in the Shadow of Death: Tuberculosis and the Experience of Illness in American History (1994). The Willowbrook Wars: Bringing the Mentally Disabled into the Community (co-author) (1984, reissued 2005). Her most recent book, The Pursuit of Perfection: The Promise and Perils of Medical Enhancement (co-author) (2003), examines the development, promotion, and use of hormonal therapies and genetic technologies.

Sheila Rothman has also written on the meaning of new technologies for individual and group identity and health policy. See Rothman SM, Rothman DJ “The Hidden Costs of Organ Sales,” American Journal of Transplantation June 2006 and Rothman SM, Rossario N, Rothman DJ, “The impact of information technology on organ donations: Private Values in a Public World,” in Blumenthal D, Rothman DJ Professionalism in a New Information Age (Rutgers University Press, 2010). Brandt-Rauf SI, Raveis VH. Drummond, N. Conte JA, Rothman, SM. “Ashkenazi Jews and Breast Cancer: The Consequences of Linking Ethnic Identity to Genetic Disease.” American Journal of Public Health November 2006.

Sheila Rothman has a long interest in Human Rights and Medicine. Together with David Rothman, she has published articles in The New York Review of Books on how AIDS came to Romania, medical accountability in Zimbabwe, the impact of organ donation policies in Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines on socially disadvantaged groups. Trust is not Enough: Bringing Human Rights to Medicine (2006) is a collection of these articles.

Sheila Rothman’s current research focuses on the relationships between medical professional organization, health advocacy organizations, and the pharmaceutical industry. See Rothman SM, Rothman DJ “Marketing HPV Vaccine: Implications for Adolescent Health and Medical Professionalism,” Journal of the American Medical Association August 2009 and Rothman SM, Raveis VH, Friedman A, Rothman, DJ “Health Advocacy Organizations and the Pharmaceutical Industry: An Analysis of Disclosure Practices.” American Journal of Public Health January 2011.

Susan Chimonas, Ph.D, is a national expert in the field of physician-industry relationships and conflict of interest in clinical care. She has written extensively about the issues in peer-reviewed journals and has played a critical role in the development of stronger conflict of interest policies at healthcare organizations around the country.

After graduating summa cum laude from Dartmouth College, Dr. Chimonas earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan in 2000, and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers University's Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research.

As lead author in a 2005 article in Health Affairs, she analyzed how drug companies and medical organizations influenced the Department of Health and Human Services’ proposed guidelines for physician-industry relationships. Dr. Chimonas explored the influence of industry relationships on individual physicians in a 2007 piece in the Journal of General Internal Medicine that used focus groups to explore physicians’ attitudes towards drug representatives. Dr. Chimonas has also evaluated state laws mandating disclosure of pharmaceutical company payments. As first author on a 2010 publication in Health Services Research, she devoted particular attention to the Vermont legislation.

A major theme of her work has been gauging the extent to which the medical profession has risen to the challenge of conflict of interest. Her work demonstrates that medicine’s record is very mixed. In a 2011 article in Academic Medicine, Dr. Chimonas reported the results of a survey of medical schools’ policies to manage conflicts of interest in clinical care – revealing that fewer than one quarter of schools had enacted policies that meet recommended standards.

The failure of physicians and medical institutions to effectively manage industry ties is perhaps most dramatically evident in Dr. Chimonas’ research on transparency. As lead author of a 2010 piece in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Dr. Chimonas evaluated the accuracy of conflict of interest disclosures in orthopedic publications – finding that, among authors receiving $1 million or more from orthopedic companies, fewer than half of their publications mentioned the company payments.

Dr. Chimonas has also explored remedies for managing conflict of interest. She served on a task force created by IMAP and the ABIM Foundation in 2004, which developed recommendations aimed at academic medical centers. She also served on a task force charged with developing equally rigorous standards for professional medical associations. She has also developed tool and resources to promote ethical physician-industry relationships, including IMAP’s COI curriculum and best practices toolkits. 

Michael Allegretti

Michael Allegretti graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. After spending three years in Italy working for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, he joined the Columbia University administrative staff. He manages the financial affairs and human resources for both the Center for the Study of Society and Medicine and the Center on Medicine as a Profession. His fiscal responsibilities include analyzing, preparing and managing budgets, monitoring grants and fund disbursements and reporting university data related to both centers' financial activities. Michael holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

Kevin McManemin

Kevin graduated with honors from Washington and Lee University in 2000 with a degree in journalism, and is currently working towards a Masters in Strategic Communications from Columbia.  He has worked as a writer, editor, web developer and public relations associate for organizations ranging from national non-profits to dotcom start-ups. In 2010 he moved to New York City to join the Center on Medicine as a Profession at Columbia as its Web Communications Officer. His responsibilities include pretty much exactly what the job title would lead you to believe.

Terri Ryan received her bachelor's degree from Pace University with a major in finance. After working many years as an administrative assistant on Wall Street, she continued her career at Columbia University Medical Center in 2006. She recently joined the Center on Medicine as a Profession as the Administrative Coordinator. Her responsibilities include administrative and financial support of the Center's activities.

Leah Aronowsky graduated with High Honors from Wesleyan University in 2010 with a degree in the Science in Society Program with extensive coursework in the sociology and history of medicine. Leah's thesis explored the interactions between the medical profession, state, and civil society in the history of birth control. The project is now being prepared for journal publication. As an undergraduate, Leah spent a semester conducting research in Bamako, Mali, where she worked as an intern at a family planning clinic. She also worked at Montefiore Medical Center as a research intern in the geriatrics department. Leah also spent a summer directing a Let's Get Ready site, a program that offers free SAT and college-preparation course to high school students who couldn't otherwise afford it. Leah joined CMAP in July 2010 and works on the Making Evidence Matter project.  

After graduating with a BA in Bioethics from Brown University, Sarah received a Masters in Public Health from the Yale School of Public Health in 2010. While at Yale, Sarah helped edit the book Health and Social Justice by Jennifer Ruger. She also worked at the Global Health Leadership Institute on a health systems strengthening initiative with the National Bank of Egypt, where she coordinated a smoking and cardio-vascular disease study among Egyptian cardiologists. The project resulted in a manuscript entitled Smoking-Related Behaviors, Attitudes and Knowledge Among Egyptian Cardiologists. Prior to joining CMAP, Sarah worked on a Puerto Rican Asthma study in the South Bronx and researched new therapeutic agents for blood pressure control at Oregon Health and Science University. Most recently, she conducted a baseline analysis of household energy projects in refugee and humanitarian settings for the Women’s Refugee Commission. At CMAP, Sarah is involved with the Center’s work on the ethics and dual-loyalties of physician involvement in military detention and interrogation.

Michael Anthony Edgcumbe graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Economics as a Joseph Wharton Scholar from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. His earned his Master's degree in New York University's Tisch School of the Arts' Interactive Telecommunications Program, where he specialized in data visualization. He is an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America.

Michael's undergraduate honor's thesis discussed alternatives to Neoclassical microeconomic theory in terms of physics and cognitive science. His Master's thesis underlined the user experience that might define a Natural User Interface and derived measurements of gestural motion for user control. Michael joined CMAP in 2011 as an Information Architect to warehouse and visualize financial donations data from drug and device manufacturers to medical institutions.

Sarah Littlehale graduated from Harvard University in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in Human Evolutionary Biology and a secondary degree in Global Health and Health Policy. As an undergraduate, she served as Managing Editor of the Harvard College Global Health Review and volunteered at Boston Medical Center, helping patients and their families access critical resources such as food and housing. She also worked with the Barbados Nutrition Study, evaluating the long-term health effects of early childhood malnutrition, both in Boston and on-site in Bridgetown, Barbados. Her senior research paper studied the relationship between insurance coverage and childhood obesity in Boston, MA and the Bronx, NY. Sarah joined CMAP in July 2011 and works on a project evaluating efforts to control conflicts of interest resulting from the medical profession's relationships with the pharmaceutical industry.

Susanna graduated with honors from Brown University in 2011 with a degree in Development Studies. Her senior thesis analyzed the politics surrounding how Actor-Network Theory (a theory focusing on how controversies get settled, and used extensively in science and technology studies) spread from Europe to the United States. It is now being prepared and submitted for publication. While at Brown, Susanna was involved in various research projects related to public health, spending one summer in American Samoa studying childhood obesity, and another summer working on the National Immunization Survey at the National Opinion Research Center. Susanna joined CMAP in July 2011 as Program Coordinator of the Conflict of Interest Project.