Emily Wang, MD, MAS, Professor of Medicine and Public Health, and Director of the SEICHE Center for Health and Justice, Yale School of Medicine, presented:
Can we achieve health equity without ending mass incarceration?
This session was moderated by Susan Cheng, MD, MMSc, MPH, ASCI Councilor, the Erika J. Glazer Chair in Women’s Cardiovascular Health and Population Science, and director of Public Health Research in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai. Click here for more information and to view past ASCI Scientific Sessions.
The American Society for Clinical Investigation is pleased to recognize Deidra C. Crews, MD, ScM, as the recipient of the 2024 Louis W. Sullivan, MD, Award, for her scientific contributions to addressing disparities in the care and outcomes of kidney disease and hypertension. Dr. Crews, who will be recognized at the 2024 AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting, receives an honorarium of $10,000, and delivers a scientific talk at the 2025 meeting.
Dr. Crews is a nephrologist and epidemiologist and among the most influential researchers worldwide advancing kidney health equity. Her seminal studies (among >250 publications) show: low socioeconomic status (SES) differentially impacts CKD risk and associated mortality among Black versus White Americans; limited access to healthy foods and housing insecurity are potent risk factors for poor CKD outcomes; diet quality impacts CKD risk especially for minoritized persons with low SES; perceived discrimination is associated with progressive loss of kidney function; and functional status of older and low SES adults with kidney failure is improved through a novel home-based intervention. She led studies to define the optimal level of kidney function at which kidney replacement therapy should be initiated, contributing to reversal of the US practice of initiating dialysis in patients still with significant residual kidney function. She led a dietary intervention trial for Black adults with CKD, hypertension and low SES whose results could solidify dietary modification as recommended therapy for this population. She is deputy director of a model health equity research center and co-PI of two NIH center awards focused on advancing equity in kidney and cardio-metabolic diseases.
As a Black American descendant of enslaved people with a strong family history of kidney disease, I have devoted my career to improving the kidney health of people from socially marginalized groups and to advancing inclusive excellence in the biomedical workforce.
— Dr. Crews
Dr. Susan E. Quaggin nominated Dr. Crews for the Award, stating, “Her work has informed clinical guidelines and has catalyzed the study of social drivers of disparities in chronic kidney disease.” Dr. Quaggin emphasized the influence of Dr. Crews’ work and the accolades she has received for exceptional research, leadership, and mentorship, such as the Johns Hopkins University President’s Frontier Award, election to the National Academy of Medicine (2023), and the Distinguished Leader Award from the American Society of Nephrology, an organization for which Dr. Crews is the first Black president.
Dr. Crews earned her BA from the University of Virginia and her MD from Saint Louis University School of Medicine. She completed a nephrology fellowship and a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology at Johns Hopkins, where she was selected as a Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program Scholar, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Crews is now Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She holds appointments in the School of Nursing; the Department of Epidemiology; the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research; the Center on Aging and Health; and the Center for Health Equity, where she is Deputy Director. She was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2020.
The American Society for Clinical Investigation is pleased to recognize Renee Yuen-Jan Hsia, MD, MSc, as the recipient of the 2024 ASCI/Marian W. Ropes, MD, Award, for her scientific contributions to understanding the relationship between access to emergency care and disparities in the health care system. Dr. Hsia, who will be recognized at the 2024 AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting, receives an honorarium of $10,000, and delivers a scientific talk at the 2025 meeting.
Dr. Hsia’s work has elucidated how market-driven imbalances in the supply and demand of emergency care produce preventable mortality and exacerbate underlying inequities. She investigates issues relating to population access to emergency departments and trauma centers; the distribution of emergency care across income areas; factors associated with closure of emergency services; how these closures affect patient outcomes, specifically focusing on patients with acute myocardial infarction, stroke, asthma/COPD, sepsis, and trauma; and the variation of costs and charges in the health care system.
My energy, and my passion, is rooted in daily encounters with patients who cannot access the benefits of our system as easily as others, and my work is based on a conviction that systems and structures must be considered carefully with attention to both efficiency and equity.
— Dr. Hsia
In nominating Dr. Hsia, Dr. Harlan M. Krumholz wrote, “In the ten years that I have known her, I have been privileged to see how her humanity is what ultimately drives her perseverance and capacity for critical analysis, as well as her unwavering commitment to studying issues that fundamentally contribute to the structural inequity of our health care system.” Dr. Krumholz noted Dr. Hsia’s highly cited academic research, which has also gained extensive attention in popular media.
Dr. Hsia received her BA from Princeton University and MSc from the London School of Economics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She earned her MD at Harvard Medical School and completed an internship and residency at Stanford University. Dr. Hsia is now Professor of Emergency Medicine and Health Policy; Vice Chair of Health Services Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine, where she was hired as the first woman researcher on a research track; and a member of the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the founder and director of the UCSF Policy Lab of Acute Care and Emergencies (PLACE). As a clinician, she attends at the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, a county hospital where most indigent patients, along with documented and undocumented immigrants, receive care and where she regularly uses her skills in Cantonese, Mandarin, and Spanish. Dr. Hsia was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2019.
The eleventh annual Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine has been awarded to Arlene H. Sharpe, MD, PhD, Kolokotrones University Professor and Chair of the Department of Immunology at Harvard Medical School. The award recognizes her breakthrough discoveries in immune regulation, which have established foundational principles in immunology and led to new cancer therapies that act by boosting the immune response to cancer.
The Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine, established in 2014 by the Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals and the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), honors physician-scientists who have moved science forward with achievements notable for innovation, creativity and potential for clinical application.
Dr. Sharpe’s research in immunology has led to significant advances in medical treatments. Her work helped identify key pathways that restrain the activity of T lymphocytes (immune cells) to fight cancer. Her work defined the PD-1 pathway and its immunoinhibitory functions as well as the inhibitory functions of CTLA-4 to restrain the activity of the immune system.
Dr. Sharpe’s research thus laid the foundation for the development of ‘immune checkpoint inhibitors’, drugs that target PD-1 and related pathways. These therapies, including pembrolizumab and nivolumab, have been approved by the FDA for treating numerous types of cancer. They work by preventing inhibition of T cell function, thereby unleashing the body’s immune system to fight cancer cells more effectively. This approach has become a cornerstone in cancer treatment strategies.
“Dr. Sharpe’s body of work has shaped our understanding of the role of the T cell in regulating the immune response. Her innovative scientific discoveries are among the best examples of bench-to-bedside work in the past three decades,” said Benjamin D. Humphreys, MD, PhD, Joseph Friedman Professor of Renal Diseases in Medicine and Chief, Division of Nephrology, Washington University in St. Louis and 2023-2024 President of the ASCI.
“Immune checkpoint inhibitors are drugs that allow for dramatic remission, and even cures, of cancers that had previously been considered untreatable. Dr. Sharpe’s foundational insights have thus been harnessed to transform cancer therapy. Her work provides a beautiful example of physician impact through creative science,” said Jonathan S. Stamler, MD, President, Harrington Discovery Institute, Robert S. and Sylvia K. Reitman Family Foundation Distinguished Professor of Cardiovascular Innovation and Professor of Medicine and of Biochemistry at University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University.
A committee composed of members of the ASCI Council and the Harrington Discovery Institute Scientific Advisory Board reviewed nominations from leading academic medical centers globally before selecting the 2024 Harrington Prize recipient.
In addition to receiving the Prize’s $20,000 honorarium, Dr. Sharpe will deliver the Harrington Prize Lecture at the 2024 AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting on April 5, will be a featured speaker at the 2024 Harrington Scientific Symposium May 22-23, and will publish an essay in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
The Harrington Prize has recognized outstanding and diverse innovations in medicine:
2014: Harry Dietz, MD, Johns Hopkins University, for his contributions to the understanding of the biology and treatment of Marfan syndrome, a disorder leading to deadly aneurysms in children and adults.
2015: Douglas R. Lowy, MD, The National Cancer Institute, in recognition of his discoveries that led to the development of the Human Papillomavirus vaccine to prevent cervical cancer.
2016: Jeffrey M. Friedman, MD, PhD, The Rockefeller University, for his discovery of leptin, which controls feeding behavior and is used to treat related clinical disorders.
2017: Jointly awarded to Daniel J. Drucker, MD, Mount Sinai Hospital, Canada, Joel F. Habener, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Jens J. Holst, MD, DMSc, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, for their discovery of incretin hormones and for the translation of these findings into transformative therapies for major metabolic diseases such as diabetes.
2018: Helen H. Hobbs, MD, UT Southwestern Medical Center, for the discovery of the link between a gene mutation (PCSK9) and lower levels of LDL, which has improved the treatment of high cholesterol.
2019: Carl H. June, MD, University of Pennsylvania, for advancing the clinical application of CAR T therapy for cancer treatment, and for his sustained contributions to the field of cellular immunology.
2020: Stuart H. Orkin, MD, Harvard University, for breakthrough discoveries on red blood cells that offer new treatments for patients with sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia, which are among the most common genetic disorders.
2021: Warren J. Leonard, MD, and John J. O’Shea, MD, NIH, for their respective contributions to the field of immunology, from fundamental discovery to therapeutic impact.
2022: James E. Crowe Jr., MD, and Michel C. Nussenzweig, MD, PhD, for their groundbreaking work, which has elucidated fundamental principles of the human immune response and enabled the use of human antibodies to treat COVID-19.
2023: Jean Bennett, MD, PhD, and Albert M. Maguire, MD, for their groundbreaking translational research to restore sight in inherited genetic diseases.
In this Perspectives video, PSEC member Vijay Sankaran, MD, PhD, interviewed Dr. Courtney D. Fitzhugh, Chief of the Laboratory of Early Sickle Mortality Prevention and Lasker Clinical Research Scholar at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH. Dr. Fitzhugh studies how stem cell transplantation can be applied using allogeneic and autologous sources to cure sickle cell disease, as well as the long-term health effects of SCD therapies. In this interview, she discusses her research on SCD along with her passion for patient advocacy. — Posted March 2024
In this Perspectives video, PSEC member Vijay Sankaran, MD, PhD, interviewed Dr. Courtney D. Fitzhugh, Chief of the Laboratory of Early Sickle Mortality Prevention and Lasker Clinical Research Scholar at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH. Dr. Fitzhugh studies how stem cell transplantation can be applied using allogeneic and autologous sources to cure sickle cell disease, as well as the long-term health effects of SCD therapies. In this interview, she discusses her research on SCD along with her passion for patient advocacy. — Posted March 2024
