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November 16, 2001
MEDIA CONTACT: Karen Blum
PHONE: 410-955-1534
E-MAIL: kblum@jhmi.edu
Underscoring its enhanced commitment to excellence in clinical investigation
and the safest possible conduct of human subjects research, Johns Hopkins Medicine
has named Michael J. Klag, M.D., M.P.H., to the newly created position of vice
dean for clinical investigation.
In the post, Klag, an internationally known expert on the epidemiology and
prevention of cardiovascular and renal diseases, will oversee all studies involving
human subjects. He also will work with Chi Van Dang, M.D., Ph.D., vice dean
for research, to develop integrated programs for clinical investigation, ensuring
that both biomedical basic science and patient-oriented research studies are
held to the same high standards.
"Hopkins has always been committed to attaining and maintaining excellence,"
Dang says. "By promoting Mike to this important leadership role, we are
working to establish the best possible system to protect those who participate
in research."
Klag, who just completed a one-year tenure as interim chair for the Department
of Medicine, is professor of medicine and serves as director of the Division
of General Internal Medicine. He also directs the Precursors Study, a long-term
project begun in 1946 that tracks the health of School of Medicine alumni by
looking for risk factors and diagnostic markers. The study has yielded a number
of scientific advances, including the understanding that depression early in
life can lead to heart disease.
"Mike is an excellent clinician who has published well over 100 studies,"
says Edward D. Miller, M.D., dean and CEO of Hopkins Medicine. "I am confident
that under his leadership we will fulfill our goal of being a worldwide role
model for academic research."
Klag says clinical research needs dedicated advocacy at both an institutional
and national level: "All of our constituencies, within and outside of Hopkins,
need to be educated about the value and importance of clinical research and
its conduct."
Klag is principal investigator of several National Institutes of Health-sponsored
grants and is an active clinician and teacher. He was editor in chief of the
Johns Hopkins Family Health Book, published in 1999.
A graduate of Juniata College, Huntingdon, Pa., and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, he completed a residency in medicine and was chief resident at the State University of New York-Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, N.Y. Klag came to Hopkins in 1984 as an internal medicine fellow. In 1987 he earned a master's degree in public health from Hopkins.
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