IMAP Board
David Blumenthal
David Blumenthal, M.D., is Director of the Institute for Health Policy and a physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System in Boston. He is also Professor of Medicine and Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. His research interests include the future of academic health centers under health care reform, quality management in health care, the determinants of physician behavior, access to health services, and the extent and consequences of academic-industrial relationships.
Wendy Levinson
Dr. Wendy Levinson is a Professor of Medicine and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She worked in the United States on the faculty at the Legacy Hospital and Oregon Health Science University and the University of Chicago Medical School. She is a past President of the Society of General Internal Medicine and is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine.
Dr. Levinson is a national and international expert in the field of physician-patient communication and the physician-patient relationship. Her research has spanned a number of highly relevant policy issues including the relationship of medical malpractice to breakdown in communication, the effectiveness of primary care physicians and surgeons in helping patients to make informed decisions, and the relationship of communication to patient satisfaction. At present, she is leading studies funded by the National Institute of Aging and the Agency for Healthcare Policy and Research on informed decision-making between surgeons and elderly patients, and disclosure of medical errors to patients. In addition, Dr. Levinson has contributed to large-scale training programs to enhance the skills of primary care physicians and surgeons in communicating effectively with their patient.
Thomas Q. Morris
Thomas Q. Morris, M.D., is Alumni Professor Emeritus of Clinical Medicine at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. He has served as acting chair of the Department of Medicine, associate dean for academic affairs, vice dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and interim dean for clinical and educational affairs. More recently he was vice president for health sciences and vice dean of the faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine, and Alumni Professor of Clinical Medicine. He was president and chief executive officer of Presbyterian Hospital from 1985 to 1990.
David J. Rothman
David J. Rothman is President of the Institute on Medicine as a Profession (IMAP), Bernard Schoenberg Professor of Social Medicine at Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons, and Professor of History, Columbia University.
Trained in American social history at Harvard University, David Rothman first explored the history of mental hospitals, prisons, and almshouses. His 1971 book, The Discovery of the Asylum (new editions 1990 and 2003), was the co-winner of the Albert J. Beveridge Prize of the American Historical Association. Conscience and Convenience (1980), and the Willowbrook Wars (1984, new edition 2005, co-authored with Sheila M. Rothman) brought the history of caretaker and custodial institutions to the present.
David Rothman joined the Columbia medical school faculty in 1983 and his subsequent work has examined the history of health care practices and health policy. He has published Strangers at the Bedside: A History of how Law and Bioethics Transformed Medical Decision Making (1991); Beginnings Count: The Technological Imperative in American Health Care (1997), and The Pursuit of Perfection: The Promise and Perils of Medical Enhancement (2003, co-authored with Sheila Rothman). His research on the history and ethics of human experimentation has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine (1987), Health Affairs Quarterly (1990), and Milbank Quarterly (1990).
David Rothman’s other scholarly and policy interests include organ transplantation and the place of human rights in medicine. Together with Sheila Rothman, he received a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Investigator Award to study the social and policy implications of the rise in living kidney donation. In February 2006, they published the "The Hidden Cost of Organ Sale" (American Journal of Transplantation); in September 2007 their article, “What Body Parts Do We Owe Each Other” will appear in Society. David and Sheila Rothman have examined such issues as how AIDS came to infect Romanian orphans, the ethics of research in third-world countries, and how the right to health care, lessons from South Africa. Their essays were brought together in Trust Is Not Enough (New York Review Book, 2006).
David Rothman is now addressing the place of professionalism in medicine. With an endowment from the Open Society Institute and George Soros, he established IMAP, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to making professionalism a field and a force within medicine. His publications in this area include “Medical Professionalism – Focusing on the Real Issues” (NEJM, 2000), “New Federal Guidelines for Physician-Pharmaceutical Industry Relations: The Politics of Policy Formation” (co-authored with Susan Chimonas, Health Affairs, 2005), and “Physicians and Drug Representatives: Exploring the Dynamics of the Relationship” (co-authored with Susan Chimonas, Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2007). He co-chaired the task force established in collaboration with the ABIM Foundation, whose findings appeared in the 2006 JAMA article: “Health Industry Practices that Create Conflicts of Interest: A Policy Proposal for Academic Medical Centers.”
In 2007, IMAP together with Boston-based Community Catalyst received a grant from PEW Community Trust to conduct the Prescription Project. IMAP has also received a grant from the Oregon Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education Program: Rational Prescribing in a World of Marketing, Educating Providers and Organizations to Best Practices.
Trained in American social history at Harvard University, David Rothman first explored the history of mental hospitals, prisons, and almshouses. His 1971 book, The Discovery of the Asylum (new editions 1990 and 2003), was the co-winner of the Albert J. Beveridge Prize of the American Historical Association. Conscience and Convenience (1980), and the Willowbrook Wars (1984, new edition 2005, co-authored with Sheila M. Rothman) brought the history of caretaker and custodial institutions to the present.
David Rothman joined the Columbia medical school faculty in 1983 and his subsequent work has examined the history of health care practices and health policy. He has published Strangers at the Bedside: A History of how Law and Bioethics Transformed Medical Decision Making (1991); Beginnings Count: The Technological Imperative in American Health Care (1997), and The Pursuit of Perfection: The Promise and Perils of Medical Enhancement (2003, co-authored with Sheila Rothman). His research on the history and ethics of human experimentation has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine (1987), Health Affairs Quarterly (1990), and Milbank Quarterly (1990).
David Rothman’s other scholarly and policy interests include organ transplantation and the place of human rights in medicine. Together with Sheila Rothman, he received a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Investigator Award to study the social and policy implications of the rise in living kidney donation. In February 2006, they published the "The Hidden Cost of Organ Sale" (American Journal of Transplantation); in September 2007 their article, “What Body Parts Do We Owe Each Other” will appear in Society. David and Sheila Rothman have examined such issues as how AIDS came to infect Romanian orphans, the ethics of research in third-world countries, and how the right to health care, lessons from South Africa. Their essays were brought together in Trust Is Not Enough (New York Review Book, 2006).
David Rothman is now addressing the place of professionalism in medicine. With an endowment from the Open Society Institute and George Soros, he established IMAP, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to making professionalism a field and a force within medicine. His publications in this area include “Medical Professionalism – Focusing on the Real Issues” (NEJM, 2000), “New Federal Guidelines for Physician-Pharmaceutical Industry Relations: The Politics of Policy Formation” (co-authored with Susan Chimonas, Health Affairs, 2005), and “Physicians and Drug Representatives: Exploring the Dynamics of the Relationship” (co-authored with Susan Chimonas, Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2007). He co-chaired the task force established in collaboration with the ABIM Foundation, whose findings appeared in the 2006 JAMA article: “Health Industry Practices that Create Conflicts of Interest: A Policy Proposal for Academic Medical Centers.”
In 2007, IMAP together with Boston-based Community Catalyst received a grant from PEW Community Trust to conduct the Prescription Project. IMAP has also received a grant from the Oregon Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education Program: Rational Prescribing in a World of Marketing, Educating Providers and Organizations to Best Practices.
James R. Tallon, Jr.
James R. Tallon, Jr. is president of the United Hospital Fund of New York. The Fund, the nation's oldest federated charity, addresses critical issues affecting hospitals and health care in New York City through health services research and policy analysis, education and information activities, and grant making and voluntarism. Mr. Tallon served in the New York State Assembly for nineteen years, beginning in 1975. He chaired the health committee from 1979 to 1987 and was Majority Leader from 1987 to 1993.
Gerald E. Thomson
Chairman
Gerald E. Thomson, M.D., is the Lambert and Sonnenborn Professor of Medicine and Senior Associate Dean of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is past President of the American College of Physicians and former Chairman of the American Board of Internal Medicine. His interests include access to health care, medical education, racial and ethnic disparities in health care and medicine, and physician advocacy.
IMAP Staff
David J. Rothman
President
David J. Rothman is President of the Institute on Medicine as a Profession (IMAP), Bernard Schoenberg Professor of Social Medicine at Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons, and Professor of History, Columbia University.
Trained in American social history at Harvard University, David Rothman first explored the history of mental hospitals, prisons, and almshouses. His 1971 book, The Discovery of the Asylum (new editions 1990 and 2003), was the co-winner of the Albert J. Beveridge Prize of the American Historical Association. Conscience and Convenience (1980), and the Willowbrook Wars (1984, new edition 2005, co-authored with Sheila M. Rothman) brought the history of caretaker and custodial institutions to the present.
David Rothman joined the Columbia medical school faculty in 1983 and his subsequent work has examined the history of health care practices and health policy. He has published Strangers at the Bedside: A History of how Law and Bioethics Transformed Medical Decision Making (1991); Beginnings Count: The Technological Imperative in American Health Care (1997), and The Pursuit of Perfection: The Promise and Perils of Medical Enhancement (2003, co-authored with Sheila Rothman). His research on the history and ethics of human experimentation has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine (1987), Health Affairs Quarterly (1990), and Milbank Quarterly (1990).
David Rothman’s other scholarly and policy interests include organ transplantation and the place of human rights in medicine. Together with Sheila Rothman, he received a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Investigator Award to study the social and policy implications of the rise in living kidney donation. In February 2006, they published the "The Hidden Cost of Organ Sale" (American Journal of Transplantation); in September 2007 their article, “What Body Parts Do We Owe Each Other” will appear in Society. David and Sheila Rothman have examined such issues as how AIDS came to infect Romanian orphans, the ethics of research in third-world countries, and how the right to health care, lessons from South Africa. Their essays were brought together in Trust Is Not Enough (New York Review Book, 2006).
David Rothman is now addressing the place of professionalism in medicine. With an endowment from the Open Society Institute and George Soros, he established IMAP, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to making professionalism a field and a force within medicine. His publications in this area include “Medical Professionalism – Focusing on the Real Issues” (NEJM, 2000), “New Federal Guidelines for Physician-Pharmaceutical Industry Relations: The Politics of Policy Formation” (co-authored with Susan Chimonas, Health Affairs, 2005), and “Physicians and Drug Representatives: Exploring the Dynamics of the Relationship” (co-authored with Susan Chimonas, Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2007). He co-chaired the task force established in collaboration with the ABIM Foundation, whose findings appeared in the 2006 JAMA article: “Health Industry Practices that Create Conflicts of Interest: A Policy Proposal for Academic Medical Centers.”
In 2007, IMAP together with Boston-based Community Catalyst received a grant from PEW Community Trust to conduct the Prescription Project. IMAP has also received a grant from the Oregon Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education Program: Rational Prescribing in a World of Marketing, Educating Providers and Organizations to Best Practices.
Trained in American social history at Harvard University, David Rothman first explored the history of mental hospitals, prisons, and almshouses. His 1971 book, The Discovery of the Asylum (new editions 1990 and 2003), was the co-winner of the Albert J. Beveridge Prize of the American Historical Association. Conscience and Convenience (1980), and the Willowbrook Wars (1984, new edition 2005, co-authored with Sheila M. Rothman) brought the history of caretaker and custodial institutions to the present.
David Rothman joined the Columbia medical school faculty in 1983 and his subsequent work has examined the history of health care practices and health policy. He has published Strangers at the Bedside: A History of how Law and Bioethics Transformed Medical Decision Making (1991); Beginnings Count: The Technological Imperative in American Health Care (1997), and The Pursuit of Perfection: The Promise and Perils of Medical Enhancement (2003, co-authored with Sheila Rothman). His research on the history and ethics of human experimentation has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine (1987), Health Affairs Quarterly (1990), and Milbank Quarterly (1990).
David Rothman’s other scholarly and policy interests include organ transplantation and the place of human rights in medicine. Together with Sheila Rothman, he received a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Investigator Award to study the social and policy implications of the rise in living kidney donation. In February 2006, they published the "The Hidden Cost of Organ Sale" (American Journal of Transplantation); in September 2007 their article, “What Body Parts Do We Owe Each Other” will appear in Society. David and Sheila Rothman have examined such issues as how AIDS came to infect Romanian orphans, the ethics of research in third-world countries, and how the right to health care, lessons from South Africa. Their essays were brought together in Trust Is Not Enough (New York Review Book, 2006).
David Rothman is now addressing the place of professionalism in medicine. With an endowment from the Open Society Institute and George Soros, he established IMAP, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to making professionalism a field and a force within medicine. His publications in this area include “Medical Professionalism – Focusing on the Real Issues” (NEJM, 2000), “New Federal Guidelines for Physician-Pharmaceutical Industry Relations: The Politics of Policy Formation” (co-authored with Susan Chimonas, Health Affairs, 2005), and “Physicians and Drug Representatives: Exploring the Dynamics of the Relationship” (co-authored with Susan Chimonas, Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2007). He co-chaired the task force established in collaboration with the ABIM Foundation, whose findings appeared in the 2006 JAMA article: “Health Industry Practices that Create Conflicts of Interest: A Policy Proposal for Academic Medical Centers.”
In 2007, IMAP together with Boston-based Community Catalyst received a grant from PEW Community Trust to conduct the Prescription Project. IMAP has also received a grant from the Oregon Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education Program: Rational Prescribing in a World of Marketing, Educating Providers and Organizations to Best Practices.
Michael A. Pardy
Chief Operating Officer
Susan Chimonas
Associate Research Scholar
CMAP
After graduating summa cum laude from Dartmouth College, Susan Chimonas earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan in 2000. Before joining CMAP, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers University's Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research. Funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Mental Health, her doctoral and postdoctoral research examined historical shifts in scientific and popular beliefs about children's mental health and socio-emotional development. She is the lead author on a series of publications on conflicts of interest, including "New Federal Guidelines For Physician Pharmaceutical Industry Relations: The Politics Of Policy Formation," Health Affairs, (2005); and "Physicians and Drug Representatives: Exploring the Dynamics of the Relationship" Journal of General Internal Medicine (2007). She is also a co-author on "Health Industry Practices that Create Conflicts of Interest," JAMA (2006). As Co-Director of Research for The Prescription Project, Dr. Chimonas will help guide a team of investigators exploring the implementation of policies on conflict of interest at leading AMCs and profession medical societies. She and the other researchers will explore how each organization manages physician-industry conflicts and promotes evidence based, cost effective prescribing.
Kavita Misra
Associate Scholar
CMAP
Kavita Misra is a social scientist with interests in the culture of biomedicine and the global political economy of health. She holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from Princeton University, an M.Phil. in sociology from the University of Delhi and spent three years at Yale University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS as an NIMH Postdoctoral Fellow. She has conducted extensive research in India on the cultural politics of AIDS and sexual health, and on health and governance, and in South Africa on social suffering, marginality and chronic illness. She has also participated in research projects on the criminal justice system and risks for HIV in Connecticut, and on childcare settings and pediatric health in Vermont.
Michael Allegretti
Financial Coordinator
CMAP
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.
Lisa Patterson
Program Coordinator
CMAP
Lisa joined CMAP in July 2007 after graduating with an MSc in anthropology from the
Anne Friedman
Research Assistant
CMAP
Anne graduated with a B.A. in Sociology from Brown University in June 2007. As an undergraduate she explored a broad array of academic and extracurricular topics, taking advantage of the interdisciplinary nature of Sociology to study politics, environmental science, and education. Anne facilitated a women's health education group on campus and spent summers in Ghana and Bangladesh learning about microfinance, women's business enterprises, and health. At CMAP Anne is excited to be working on the Patient Advocacy project.
Michelle Moses-Eisenstein
Program Coordinator
CMAP
Michelle Moses-Eisenstein joined CMAP in June 2008 and is the Program Coordinator for the Advocacy Initiatives. Previously, Michelle was the Coordinator at the Dean's Office at Columbia Business School. As a recipient of the Bard Human Rights Fellowship, she worked with Women's Equity in Access to Care and Treatment, a not-for-profit that provides medical services and empowers survivors of the Rwandan genocide. Michelle also worked for American Jewish World Service and the International Legal Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights. At Bard College she volunteered as a peer health educator and majored in Psychology with a concentration in Global and International Studies.
Zack Frosch
Research Associate
CMAP
Zack joined CMAP after graduating with High Honors from Wesleyan University in 2008 with a BA in Neuroscience & Behavior and Psychology. While at Wesleyan, he completed coursework in health policy and public health and spent two years working as an Emergency Medical Technician for a volunteer fire department. For his Senior Thesis, Zack conducted research in conjunction with Harvard Medical School's Study of Adult Development investigating the effects of lifetime smoking trajectories on longevity and health in late life. At CMAP, Zack is researching medical devices for the Prescription Project.
Madeline DiLorenzo
Research Associate
CMAP
Madeline graduated from Brown University in 2008 with a degree in international relations. As a student, she worked on domestic public health initiatives with the American Cancer Society and on issues abroad with the Global Alliance to Immunize AIDS in Mali, as well as with the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative in Vietnam. Madeline joined CMAP in July 2008 where she has been a part of the Prescription Project, focusing on issues relating to professional medical associations and conflicts of interest.
Poonam Pai
Research Associate
CMAP
Poonam graduated with a B.A in Anthropology and Human Rights from Barnard College, Columbia University in May 2008. This combined major, along with a minor in Women's and Gender Studies, allowed her to study the intersections between gender, biomedical ethics, and bodily rights; her senior thesis focused on the medical mismanagement of intersexed persons in the US. Prior to joining CMAP, Poonam worked as the Jeanne Clery Intern at Columbia's Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Program, as well as Program Officer at the UNAIDS/UNFPA-funded Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS. At CMAP, Poonam works on the Prescription Project researching conflicts of interest at academic medical centers.
Teresa Ryan
Administrative Coordinator
CMAP
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.
Eloise Austin
Visiting Research Assistant
CMAP
A student at Yale School of Medicine, Eloise joined CMAP in August 2008 as a visiting research assistant. As a Downs Fellow in International Health, she completed a research project that focused on mental health resources for Rwandan orphans. She also acted as co-coordinator of the Cohen Fellowship in Child Psychiatry. Eloise served as Director of Development and board member for Orphans of Rwanda, a nonprofit that promotes higher education for orphans and vulnerable youth in the country. At CMAP, she examines non-industry sources of new prescription drug information. Eloise graduated magna cum laude in American History and Literature from Harvard in 2002.
Frederica Stahl
Research Associate
CMAP
Frederica graduated with honors from Harvard University in January 2008 with a B.A. in History of Science, Mind Brain Behavior. As an undergraduate, she ran a women's resource center at Boston Medical Center and worked on human rights and HIV/AIDS issues in Moscow, Russia. Her senior thesis traced the history of the pineal gland, focusing on the first biological experiments performed in the mid-20th century and the conceptual roots grounding the paradigm. Frederica joined CMAP in September 2008 and is working on the political and legal history of conflicts of interest in medicine.