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Date:  Oct. 13, 2008

Contacts:  Christine Stencel, Senior Media Relations Officer

202-334-2138; e-mail <news@nas.edu>

Donna Duncan, Deputy Director, IOM Membership Office

202-334-2174; e-mail <dduncan@nas.edu>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Institute of Medicine Honors Members for Outstanding Service

WASHINGTON -- Today at its 38th annual meeting, the Institute of Medicine honored members Sheila P. Burke, David Mechanic, and Gilbert S. Omenn for their outstanding service to the institution. 

Burke was awarded the David Rall Medal, which is given to an IOM member who has demonstrated distinguished leadership as chair of a study committee or other such activity, showing commitment above and beyond the usual responsibilities of the position.  Her exemplary service as chair of the Committee on the Assessment of the U.S. Drug Safety System is particularly noteworthy.  This committee took on the intensely difficult and highly political task of making recommendations for the reform of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration following public outcry about drugs that demonstrated safety problems in the post-approval period.  Burke successfully navigated the scientific and political maze that the committee faced throughout its study of this critical issue, which resulted in the report The Future of Drug Safety: Promoting and Protecting the Health of the Public.  Burke is adjunct lecturer in public policy and faculty research fellow at the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy within the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. 

Mechanic was presented the Adam Yarmolinsky Medal, which is given to an IOM member from a discipline outside the health and medical sciences.  Mechanic can appropriately be called the "dean of medical sociology."  His prolific and profound contributions over the past five decades have helped to define and build the field of sociology of medicine and significantly influence the fields of mental and physical health.  He has written or edited numerous publications in medical sociology, health policy, health services research, and the social and behavioral sciences.  In addition to carrying out research and providing valuable service to the scientific community, he has also been an exemplary professional colleague, teacher, and mentor.  Mechanic is currently director of the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers University.

Omenn received the Walsh McDermott Medal, awarded to an IOM member for distinguished service over an extended period.  Since his election in 1979, he has been an enthusiastic and outgoing contributor to the Institute's work at multiple levels.  He has served as a member of the IOM Council and of the National Research Council's Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, serving as its chair from 1982 through 1988.  Omenn has chaired numerous activities, including the Committee on Evaluation of Selected Federal Health Care Quality Activities, which wrote the report Leadership by Example: Coordinating Government Roles in Improving Health Care Quality, part of IOM's health care quality series.  And since 2001, he has been a member of the Report Review Committee.  Omenn is professor of internal medicine, human genetics, and public health and director of the Center for Computation Medicine and Biology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Nominations for the three membership awards were solicited from IOM members and staff.  Established in 1970 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine provides independent, objective, evidence-based advice to policymakers, health professionals, the private sector, and the public.  The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. 

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[ This news release is available at http://national-academies.org ]