Howard Hiatt
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Dr. Howard Hiatt attended Harvard University and received his M.D. from the Harvard Medical School in 1948. He was trained in clinical medicine, biochemistry, and molecular biology, and has been on the Harvard University faculty since 1955.
His early research focused on the application of molecular biology to medical problems, particularly cancer. From 1963 to 1972, he was the first Herrman L. Blumgart Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Physician-in-Chief at Beth Israel Hospital. He became among the first of the nation's teaching hospitals both to seek applications of molecular and cell biology to clinical medicine and to develop teaching and research programs in primary care.
From 1972 to 1984, while he was Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, the School strengthened greatly its work in the analytic sciences, introduced molecular and cell biology into its research and teaching, and began its program in health policy, the first of its kind.
He is now a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and senior physician at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. He directed a team of colleagues from the Harvard Faculties of Medicine, Public Health, Law, and Arts and Sciences in a multi-year study of medical injury, medical malpractice, and the tort litigation system. This work was described in many articles and a book, A Measure of Malpractice, published by Harvard University Press in 1993 and has been the basis for initiatives for system reform in several states. He is now concerned with social aspects of health. Hiatt recently chaired the Committee on National Needs for Biomedical and Behavioral Scientists of the National Research Council, stressing the importance of global health as an emerging field.
