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NHM Board Welcomes Renowned Health
and Medical Figures as Newest Trustees

fischell    snyderman
Robert Fischell   Ralph Snyderman

The NHM Board of Trustees has announced that Dr. Robert E. Fischell and Dr. Ralph Snyderman have been elected to three-year terms of service.  Dr. Fischell, a noted educator, scientist, businessman and philanthropist, is a frequently published author and the holder of numerous patents for major medical devices.  Dr. Snyderman is Chancellor Emeritus for Medical Affairs of Duke University and James B. Duke Professor of Medicine in the Duke University School of Medicine.  He served at Duke during a period of significant expansion for this outstanding, internationally recognized leader in academic medicine.

NHM President Mark Dunham recognized the important assets each will bring to the Board of Trustees. “The extraordinary accomplishments of Bob Fischell and Ralph Snyderman in their respective fields have rightfully earned each of them reputations as genuine health and medical visionaries,” said Dunham.  “They are true innovators whose skills and abilities will be tremendously valuable to the Museum’s development.”

Educator Fischell known for Inventions, Philanthropy

Dr. Fischell, the author of 49 technical publications, holds more than 200 U.S. and foreign patents, nearly 100of which are for medical devices.  A particular area of achievement has been in the area of cardiac devices, where he holds 13 patents on stents and nine on stent delivery systems.  Other patents include a satellite altitude detection system, a rechargeable body tissue stimulator and a frictionless gyroscope.

He is also a noted philanthropist, who has been widely recognized for his achievments.  In 2005, Dr. Fischell and his late wife contributed $30 million to the University of Maryland to establish the Fischell Department of Bioengineering and the Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices.  The same year, he also joined musician Bono and photographer Edward Burtynsky as winners of the prestigious 2006 TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) Prize.

A physicist by training, Dr. Fischell’s early career included work for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and at the Naval Ordinance Laboratory and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.  His interests then turned to the invention of new medical devices, such as pacemakers and implantable heart defibrillators.  He is considered the father of modern medical stents, lifetime pacemaker batteries, and implantable insulin pumps.  His inventions were the basis for the incorporation of Pacesetter Systems, Inc., now the world’s second largest heart pacemaker company.

Dr. Fischell has also worked for the U.S. government, advising the National Science Foundation and the U.S. National Research Council.  A frequent witness on technology issues before the U.S. Congress, he also taught space technology for fifteen years in the graduate school at Johns Hopkins University.  He received a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University and a Masters of Science in Physics from the University of Maryland.  In 1996 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Sciences degree by the University of Maryland.  He is a Trustee of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation and a former Trustee of Duke University’s Engineering Council and the University of Maryland at College Park Board of Visitors.

Former Academic Medicine Leader Snyderman Active in New Health Care Ventures

During his tenure at Duke, Dr. Snyderman oversaw the development of the Duke University Health System, one of the most successful integrated academic health systems in the country, and served as its first President and Chief Executive Officer.

He has also played a leading role in the conception and development of Prospective Care, a novel approach to personalized health and an evolving model of national health care delivery.  In 2004, after stepping down as Duke Chancellor, he founded Proventys, Inc., a company at the forefront of transforming health care into a personalized and preventative approach through the development of unique risk assessment and clinical decision support tools.  He is also a member of the Board of Directors of The Procter & Gamble Company, Axonyx, Inc., Cardiome Pharma Corporation, and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).

Dr. Snyderman accepted his first faculty appointment at Duke in 1972 and became chief of the Division of Rheumatology and Immunology in 1975 and, by 1984, he was the Frederic M. Hanes Professor of Medicine and Immunology.  His research contributed to the understanding of how white blood cells respond to chemical signals to mediate host defense or tissue damage.  His bibliography exceeds 350 manuscripts as well as numerous books. In 1987, Snyderman left Duke to join Genentech, Inc., the pioneering biomedical technology firm, as Senior Vice President for medical research and development and a member of its senior leadership team.  While at Genentech, he led the development and licensing of several novel therapeutics.

A graduate of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, he received his M.D., magna cum laude, in 1965 from the Downstate Medical Center of the State University of New York.  He served his internship and residency in medicine at Duke and later worked as a Public Health Officer doing research in immunology at the NIH.

He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the CIBA GEIGY Award for inflammation research;  the Bonazinga Award for Excellence in Leukocyte Biology Research; the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Arthritis Foundation; the Downstate Medical Center of the State University of New Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award and Honorary Doctor of Science degree; the Washington College Distinguished Alumni Citation and Honorary Doctor of Science degree; the Ellis Island Medal of Honor; and the first Bravewell Leadership Award for outstanding achievement in the field of integrative medicine.  He plays a prominent role in the leadership of national organizations such as the Association of American Physicians, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).  He has served as Chair of the AAMC and President of the Association of American Physicians.

 

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