Newswise — On Oct. 16, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) announced that University of Chicago Medicine physician Marshall Chin, MD, MPH, has been elected a member of the Academy.

Election to the NAM is one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine. It indicates that an individual has made major contributions to medicine and health care and demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.

Chin, the Richard Parrillo Family Professor of Healthcare Ethics and associate chief and director of research for the Section of General Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago, is a general internist with extensive experience caring for both the clinical and social needs of vulnerable patients with chronic disease.

“Marshall Chin is an international leader in improving care and outcomes for racial and ethnic minority patients and persons with social risk factors,” said Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD, the Richard T. Crane Distinguished Service Professor, Dean of the Division of the Biological Sciences and the Pritzker School of Medicine and Executive Vice President of Medical Affairs.

“He has devised and implemented a series of innovative approaches to patient care with particular emphasis on the alleviation of difficult clinical, social and economic problems,” Polonsky added. “He is also a talented physician, with a life-long commitment to improve patient care, reduce health care disparities and make the best use of available resources.”

Chin directs the NIH-funded Chicago Center for Diabetes Translation Research. He and colleague Monica Peek, MD, co-direct the South Side Diabetes Project, which has advanced diabetes care and outcomes through healthcare system and community interventions.

Chin also leads the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Finding Answers: Solving Disparities through Payment and Delivery System Reform. Through that program, he and his team created the Roadmap to Reduce Disparities, a six-step framework to help healthcare organizations improve minority health and foster equity.

Chin studies the patient-centered medical home – a team-based care-delivery model – in safety net clinics, and efforts to improve shared decision-making between clinicians and LGBTQ persons of color. His research has improved care in federally qualified health centers through the national Health Disparities Collaboratives.

 Chin co-chairs the National Quality Forum’s Disparities Standing Committee, which works to reduce health care disparities and reform clinical performance measurement and payment. He currently serves on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Community Preventive Services Task Force and is a former president of the Society of General Internal Medicine.

In addition to his clinical and research roles, Chin is a teacher and award-winning mentor, committed to providing opportunities for trainees and young faculty. He is also associate director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics.

Chin graduated from Harvard University in 1985, earned his medical degree from the University of California San Francisco in 1989 and completed his residency at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1992, followed by a Harvard general internal medicine fellowship.

He came to the University of Chicago in 1994 as an assistant professor of medicine and was promoted to associate professor in 2000 and professor in 2009. Chin lives with his wife and son in the Hyde Park neighborhood, which is home to the University of Chicago.

The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly known as the Institute of Medicine, is an honorific and advisory organization. Established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, it is recognized as a national resource for independent, scientifically informed analysis and recommendations on health issues.  

The NAM has more than 2,000 members elected in recognition of distinguished professional achievement and commitment to protecting and advancing health through volunteer service in activities of the NAM and other groups within the National Academies. The NAM elects up to 70 regular members and 10 international members annually. Election to NAM reflects the highest esteem of professional peers in clinical, scientific, and other fields that interface with health and medicine.

 

With Chin’s appointment, there are now 15 current or emeritus UChicago faculty members who have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine.