SELF EXAM:

Occupation: Physician, public health champion, women's health pioneer, health policy expert, and educator. For over 20 years, served in senior Federal positions including as the first Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women's Health, U.S. Assistant Surgeon General, Rear Admiral, Global Health Advisor at HHS; Chief, Behavioral Medicine Research Branch at NIH; and White House Health Advisor. Currently, Director, Health Program, Center for the Study of the Presidency; Senior Medical Advisor, amfAR, Foundation for AIDS Research; and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Georgetown School of Medicine.

Alternative career choice: Poet, pianist and technology entrepreneur

What do rock stars and scientists have in common: Rock stars and scientists share passion, creativity, and the thrill of discovery. Where musicians use their minds, instruments and voices to create new rhythms, researchers use science and technology to make the music of medicine: new discoveries that improve health and eradicate disease.

I tend to approach life: As an incurable optimist. I always believe there's a solution.

Biggest misconceptions about me or my work: People approaching me when I was wearing my US Public Health Service Admiral's uniform and asking, "Are you an airline pilot?"

Worst part-time job ever: Cutting the heads off of mice during a high school summer research internship in a neuroscience lab

Longest med school study session: All-nighter memorizing the anatomy of the human body

Best moment in medicine/research: Working with First Lady Hillary Clinton to convince the CIA, Pentagon and NASA to make their advanced imaging technologies available to improve the early detection of breast and other cancers. And they did! This work helped stimulate the field of computer assisted diagnosis, 3D medical imaging, and additional applications

ABOUT MY RESEARCH:

Disease Area: Preventing disease with science and public health interventions; sex differences in disease; cancer; and mental illness including depression, PTSD and eating disorders

Research Area: Health policy and reform issues; women's health; disease, obesity and suicide prevention; mental illness: health diplomacy; and global health including HIV/AIDS

Science Impact/Accomplishments or Goal: A hallmark of Dr. Blumenthal's work has been bringing understudied health problems to increased scientific and public attention. She was an architect of major Federal initiatives including a national disease prevention strategy, obesity and breast cancer action plans, a new model for understanding and preventing suicide, the first national education campaign on depression as a medical illness and some of the earliest programs to fight AIDS. Dr. Blumenthal played a pioneering role in exposing the inequities in women's health and was a leader in moving the field of sex differences in disease to the forefront of our nation's health agenda. She was among the first in the government to apply information technology to improve health, building several award winning websites, and serving as a medical journalist. She has built health diplomacy programs including a Middle East initiative and has been a champion in advancing research, education and policy on global health issues and emerging disease threats.

Research Description: Dr. Blumenthal's work has made an indelible mark on improving women's health and the study of sex differences in the United States and internationally. The results of this work benefit men as well! Before 1990, most research and education programs targeted men only. She forged numerous innovative initiatives across Federal agencies, with the private sector and with other countries. Examples include establishing the National Centers of Excellence on Women's Health at academic health centers to serve as models for research, care, and education as well as the first of its kind, National Women's Health Information Center. She spearheaded the "From Missiles to Mammograms" research initiative which harnessed DOD, CIA, and NASA imaging technology to improve breast cancer detection. As a result of these and others' efforts, women's health is now a priority, funding has dramatically increased, a broad spectrum of research is underway, and prevention and service delivery programs are targeting women's unique needs.