Biography of Dr. Bernadine Healy

Bernadine Healy is a health and medical columnist for US News and World Report since 2002. A physician with a career in medical education, research, patient care, and health policy, she has led the Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, the National Institutes of Health, the College of Medicine and Public Health of Ohio State University, and the American Red Cross.

Dr. Healy became the president of the American Red Cross on September 1, 1999. There she worked to upgrade blood services with a major focus on the safety and availability of the American blood supply, expanded bilateral and multi-lateral international work in Africa, India and Turkey and created organization wide action and Congressional support for the inclusion of the Magen David Adom (Israeli Red Cross) into the International Red Cross movement. For more than a year she oversaw the development of a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) response program, and then, unexpectedly, led the response of the American Red Cross to the 9/11 events, mobilizing volunteers, blood and financial support for the range of services triggered by the President’s activation of the Federal Response Plan. These efforts included recovery and response work in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon, creation of a 200 million dollar family grant program for victim’s families, grieving and healing programs in chapters throughout the country, an international response for the families of foreign nationals caught in the disaster, expansion of the armed forces emergency preparedness activities for deployed military, reservists and their families and the initiation of a strategic blood reserve from “extra” blood collections. To assure transparency and accountability, Dr. Healy established a separately designated Liberty Fund to be used exclusively for response and readiness for 9/11 and its aftermath including future threats and attacks, obligations mandated by federal charter and the Federal Response Plan.

Prior to the American Red Cross, Dr. Healy served as the Dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health and Professor of Medicine at the Ohio State University, starting in 1995.  Under Dr. Healy’s leadership, the College expanded its talent and programs in cancer research and tumor genetics, developed its Heart and Lung Institute, received national designation as a Center of Excellence in Women’s Health, and obtained accreditation for its new Public Health School, the first and only School of Public Health in Ohio. Dr. Healy chaired The Ohio State University Research Commission, a task force on university-wide research.

Dr. Healy was a past director of the NIH, appointed by President George H. W. Bush to that post in early 1991. Under her leadership, the NIH embarked on its first strategic planning process, involving a broad cross-section of NIH constituencies, and guided many of the innovations of her tenure. Dr. Healy established a major intramural laboratory for human genomics at NIH and recruited a world renowned scientific team headed by Dr. Francis Collins to lead the Human Genome program; she oversaw the elevation of nursing to an Institute for Nursing Research, as well as the reentry of the three behavioral institutes including the National Institutes of Mental Health into the NIH enterprise, an separation that had been created years before largely because of the stigma associated with mental illness.

At NIH Dr. Healy conceived of and launched the NIH Women’s Health Initiative, a $625 million effort to study the causes, prevention, and cures of diseases that affect women at midlife and beyond. The WHI was the largest clinical research study ever establiished and integrated the work of ten disease oriented institutes and forty clinical research sites in its execution. .One part of that trial stunned the medical community last summer when, counter to what was seen as medical dogma, combined hormone replacement therapy was linked to more not less heart attacks and strokes. The study will continue to provide studied information on the full range of women's health and disease well into this century.

Prior to her appointment at NIH, Dr. Healy was chairman of the Research Institute of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, where she directed the research programs of nine departments, including cardiovascular disease, neurobiology, immunology, cancer, artificial organs, and molecular biology. With an active program of recruitment, fund raising, and strategic planning, the Research Institute more than doubled in size and expanded into newly built research facilities.

In early 1984, Dr. Healy became deputy director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House. Her appointment, made by President Reagan and confirmed by the Senate, involved her in life science and regulatory issues at the Federal level. She served as chairman of the White House Cabinet Working Group on Biotechnology, was executive secretary of the White House Science Council’s Panel on the Health of Universities, and served as a member of several advisory groups, including the Councils of the National Hearth, Lung, and Blood Institute, as well as the White House Working Group on Health Policy and Economics.

From June 1976 until February 1984, Dr. Healy served on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Hospital, where she became Professor of medicine and cardiology, director of the Coronary Care Unit, and was dedicated to patient care, research, and teaching. Dr. Healy also served as assistant dean for post-doctoral programs and faculty development in the medical school.

Among her other professional affiliations, Dr. Healy has served on the American Board of Internal Medicine, the Board of Governors of the American College of Cardiology, and as president of the American Federation of Clinical Research from 1983-1984. She served as president of the American Heart Association (AHA), a volunteer role, in 1988-1989, having been a member of its Board of Directors since 1983. As AHA president, she initiated the Women and Minorities Leadership Task Force and a Women and Heart Disease program that took hold in affiliates nationwide.

Dr. Healy was elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1987 and is a Master of the American College of Physicians. She has been a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, the Board of Trustees of Vassar College, several public and private advisory groups and corporate boards, and has received numerous honorary degrees and awards.

The author or co-author of over 220 peer review manuscripts in cardiovascular research and health and science policy. Dr. Healy has served on several editorial boards. She is the former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Women’s Health. Her book, entitled, A New Prescription for Women’s Health, was published in 1996 by Viking/Penguin. For six years Dr. Healy was medical consultant and commentator for CBS News.

Dr.Healy is married to Dr. Floyd Loop and has two daughters.