Reynolds Center at UAMS Recruits Geriatric Specialist and Research Team from Harvard

05-09-02 (Little Rock)   “We intended the Reynolds Department of Geriatrics to become a magnet that would attract outstanding researchers and geriatricians to the faculty, and this new academic appointment is proof of our new ability to recruit top talent to Arkansas,” says David A. Lipschitz, M.D., Ph.D., chairman of this department within the College of Medicine of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).  Today he announced the appointment of Jeanne Yichen Wei, M.D., Ph.D., of the Harvard Medical School, to the position of Executive Vice Chairman of the department.

Dr. Wei brought with her two research-oriented physicians from Boston – Xiaomin  Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., and Ying Zhong, M.D. – a husband and wife team. Both received their medical degree from Nantong Medical College in China, and Dr. Zhang earned his doctoral degree at University Montpellier II in France.

Wei has held since 1977 several appointments to hospitals located in the northeast and has served since 1987 as Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard.  She will leave the post of Senior Physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and will join the faculty at UAMS on July 1. “I’m delighted to join a top 10 department,” she said – referring to the recent designation of the Reynolds Department of Geriatrics to this status by the editors of U.S. News & World Report. “I believe the program in Arkansas will continue to advance in stature and national recognition, and I look forward to being a part of it.”

Wei earned her academic credentials in the midwest at the University of Illinois, including a bachelor‘s degree in physics and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in medicine and pharmacology respectively in 1975.

She took postdoctoral training as an intern in medicine and junior assistant resident in medicine – both at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md. She subsequently pursued clinical and research fellowships as a clinical and research fellow in cardiology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and as a staff fellow in the clinical physiology branch, cardiovascular section, National Institutes of Health, National Institutes of Aging, Gerontology Research Center.

Wei holds several licenses and certifications, including that of Diplomate, Certificate of Added Qualification in Geriatric Medicine from the American Board of Internal Medicine. She is a sought-after speaker and visiting professor, and has won many honors during her career, including:  Daniel D. Federman Outstanding Clinical Educator, Harvard Medical School Class of 2000; Keynote Speaker, 42^nd Annual National meeting of The Japan Geriatric Society; and a nominee for the S. Robert Stone Award for Excellence in Teaching from Harvard Medical School.

She has been active in many regional and national professional organizations and committees, and in recent years her involvement was focused on geriatrics. She has served on the editorial boards of many Journals and as an editorial consultant.  She is the author or co-author of 121 medical research reports, six books – including Aging Well: The Complete Guide to Physical and Emotional Health (2000) – and more than 50 reviews. Also an inventor, she holds two medical-related U.S. patents. Her major research interests are: effects of age on cardiovascular homeostasis, biology of aging, and mechanisms of cardiac dysfunction.

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Click on above image for high res photo.
Jeanne Yichen Wei, M.D., Ph.D.

About Reynolds Center at UAMS: www.geriatrics.uams.edu

PR Contact:    
Mike H. Mottler, Director
University Relations                              
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Reynolds Center on Aging at UAMS 
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03/30/07