Joel Kupersmith, M.D., an American physician, is the former dean of the Texas Tech University School of Medicine, and head of the Office of Research and Development of the Department of Veterans Affairs. He is the former Director, Veterans Initiatives and Professor of Medicine at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

Early life

Kupersmith was born in

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and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science,

Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...

in Schenectady, New York and

New York Medical College New York Medical College (NYMC or New York Med) is a private medical school in Valhalla, New York. Founded in 1860, it is a member of the Touro College and University System. NYMC offers advanced degrees through its three schools: the School o ...

. After serving as a lieutenant (MC) in the U.S. Navy, and residency in internal medicine at

he completed his cardiology fellowship at Beth Israel Medical Center/Harvard Medical School. Kupersmith's research interests, which began when he was a research associate in pharmacology at Columbia University's College of Physician Surgeons have included basic and clinical electrophysiology and heart rhythm abnormalities. They focused on the unique effects of antiarrhythmic drugs in ischemic tissue, ion sensitive electrodes to understand the heart's electrical activity, and cost-effectiveness in heart disease. He has published over 170 papers.

Academic medicine

Kupersmith joined the faculty of the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in 1974, where he rose to the rank of professor and initiated one of the early clinical cardiac electrophysiology sections and a clinical pharmacology section. Kupersmith then became chief of cardiology and Cooke Professor of Medicine at the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of ...

, and professor and chairperson of the department of medicine at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

. In 1997, he was appointed dean of the School of Medicine at Texas Tech University and of its Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Vice President for clinical affairs, and CEO of its faculty practice. He was involved in the initial efforts to establish what is now the

Paul L. Foster School of Medicine The Paul L. Foster School of Medicine is a medical school in El Paso, Texas at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso. The Paul L. Foster School of Medicine is the 9th medical school in the state of Texas, and the medical school i ...

in El Paso and initiated a 4/year MD/MBA program, the second in the U.S. Kupersmith has served as a site visit chair for the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), was a member of the AAMC Task Force on Fraud and Abuse, and was elected to the Governing Council, Medical School Section, of the American Medical Association.

Health care policy and research

Following his tenure at Texas Tech, Kupersmith was a Petersdorf scholar at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and scholar-in-residence at the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Meidcine). Here, he led a project on how to fund and oversee Comparative Effectiveness Research which resulted in a recommendation of a public-private consortium to engage all relevant stakeholders in establishing priorities, funding research, and balancing competing interests, ideas which were later the prototype for the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

VA research

In 2005, Kupersmith was appointed CRADO, Office of Research and Development (ORD) within the Veterans Health Administration beginning an 8-year tenure. He started the Million Veterans Program which has a goal of collecting genetic information from veterans and linking that information to the VA electronic health record. It has become one of the world's largest genetic databases. Dr. Kupersmith also implemented laboratory infrastructure improvement and new methods of developing and conducting research, mandating engagement of health system leaders thus assuring its relevance. He initiated one of the early Central Institutional Review Boards and established a VA young investigator award with Historically Black Colleges and Universities. A component of the Office of Research and Development, (the Clinical Research Pharmacy Coordinating Center) won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Veterans Advocacy

Kupersmith was the former Director, Veterans Initiatives and Professor of Medicine Georgetown University. In this capacity, working with Gen. (Ret) George Casey, former Army Chief of Staff, he initiated the Veterans Creed, a statement of veteran’s principles, and organized 17 major Veterans Service Organizations to adopt and utilize it. In this position, He has also advised ref, advised on how to make civilian health systems more receptive to veterans and other aspects of veterans’ healthcare.

Awards

*Alumni Association Distinguished Achievement Award, New York Medical College, 1992 *Affirmative Action Award, University of Louisville

Federal Panels

Dr. Kupersmith was a member of Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research, Council of the National Center for the Advancement of Translational Science of NI, the Federal Collaboration on Health Disparities Research, the National Science and Technology Council Committee on Homeland and National Security, The Biomarkers Consortium of NIH, and the Council on Science, Office of Science and Technology Policy, White House.

Books and publications

* Kupersmith, J, Deedwania P (eds), ''The Pharmacologic Management of Heart Disease'', Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, 1997. * Singer I, Kupersmith J (eds), ''Clinical Manual of Electrophysiology'', Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, 1993. * Kupersmith J, ''Achieving Accountability: A Proactive Process for Academic Medical Centers'', Association of Academic Medical Centers, Washington DC 2005.

Selected works

*Kupersmith J, Antman EM, Hoffman BF: In vivo electrophysiologic effects of lidocaine in canine acute myocardial infarction. Circ Res 36:84-91, 1975. *Kline RP, Cohen I, Falk R, Kupersmith J: Activity dependent extracellular K+ fluctuation in canine Purkinje fiber. Nature 286:68-71, 1980

Policy

*Kupersmith J, Sung N, Genel M, Slavkin H, Califf R, Bonow R, Sherwood L, Reame N, Catanese V, Baase C, Feussner J, Dobs A, Tilson H, Reece EA: Creating a new structure for research on health care effectiveness. J Invest Med 53:67-72, 2005. *Kupersmith J: Quality of care in teaching hospitals: A literature review. Acad Med 80:458-466, 2005. *Kupersmith J, Francis J, Kerr E, Krein S, Pogach L, Kolodner RM, Perlin JB: Advancing Evidence-based care for diabetes: Lessons from the veterans health administration. Health Affairs 26:w156-w168, 2007. *Kupersmith J, O'Leary TJ: The million veteran program: Building VA's mega-database for genomic medicine. Health Affairs, Nov 19, 2012. *Kupersmith J: A new role for the Veterans Health Administration Health Affairs, Posted March 18, 2016. *Kupersmith J, O’Hanlon M: Gulf War Illness 25 Years After Desert Storm,Health Affairs
/ref> Posted August 4, 2016. *Kupersmith J: Publication in 2005 recommended the prototype for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. J Comp Eff Res 6:95. 2017 *Kupersmith J: 12 Ways Civilian Healthcare Can Meet its Social Responsibility to Veterans Health Affairs July 23, 2018

Example News Items

*http://www.nbc33tv.com/news/national-news/dna-from-veterans-used-for-new-study *http://www.thepharmaletter.com/file/107315/nasal-insulin-spray-shows-promise-in-treatment-of-alzheimers.html *http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/200114.php. *https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/06/10/1519289/0/en/Veteran-Service-Organizations-Establish-a-Veteran-s-Creed.html *https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/06/18/veterans-groups-are-now-pledging-serve-community-new-creed.html

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kupersmith, Joel Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Physicians from New York City Union College (New York) alumni The Bronx High School of Science alumni New York Medical College alumni American cardiologists