Michael John Klag (born 1952) is an American internist and epidemiologist. For eight years, he was the Director of the Division of General Internal Medicine and was the first Vice Dean for Clinical Investigation at the
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Hospi ...
.
Throughout his tenure at Johns Hopkins, Klag focused on the risk factors for, prevalence of and effective intervention strategies for kidney disease. He was among the first to raise the alarm of kidney disease epidemic across the United States and associate the risk of developing kidney disease with blood pressure, diabetes, race, socioeconomic status and other factors.
Early life and education
Klag was born in 1952
to parents Rudolph E. Klag
and Cecelia Ann McGinley in Pennsylvania. When his father died, his mother re-married to John E. McGuire. He graduated from
Kennedy-Kenrick Catholic High School in 1970 and enrolled at
Juniata College
Juniata College is a private liberal arts college in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1876 as a co-educational school, it was the first college started by members of the Church of the Brethren as a center for vocational learning for those wh ...
for his undergraduate degree. Following this, he enrolled at the
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania for his medical degree and completed his medical internship, residency, and chief residency in internal medicine at
State University of New York Upstate Medical University. In 1984, he began a fellowship in internal medicine at
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Hospi ...
(JHUSOM) and then enrolled at their
school of public health for his
Master's degree in Public Health.
Career
Upon completing his medical education, Klag accepted a joint appointment in Epidemiology and Health Policy and Management in JHUSOM from 1987 to 1988.
From there, he was named director of The Precursors Study which concluded in 2011. Throughout his tenure at Johns Hopkins, Klag focused on the risk factors for, prevalence of and effective intervention strategies for kidney disease. He was among the first to raise the alarm of kidney disease epidemic across the United States and associate the risk of developing kidney disease with blood pressure, diabetes, race, socioeconomic status and other factors.
In 1998, Klag was promoted to
Full professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...
in the JHUSOM and was appointed interim director of the department of medicine and interim physician-in-chief at The Johns Hopkins Hospital from 2000 to 2001.
While serving in these roles, he directed a study that indicated that many doctors avoid seeing their own physicians and taking care of their own health. He came to this conclusion by surveying 312 out of 915 JHUSOM graduates. Later that year, he oversaw another study that analyzed 14 tests of coffee-drinking adults conducted between 1985 and 1992 to come to the conclusion that coffee filters played an important role in controlling cholesterol. As a result of his research, Klag succeeded
Alfred Sommer
Alfred (Al) Sommer (born October 2, 1942) is a prominent American ophthalmologist and epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research on vitamin A in the 1970s and 1980s revealed that dosing even mildly vitami ...
as Dean of
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is the public health graduate school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. As the second independent, degree-granting institution for research in epi ...
with simultaneous appointments as professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Epidemiology and Department of Health Policy and Management.
Klag served as Dean of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for 11 years, becoming the school's longest-tenured divisional dean or director.
During his time as dean, Klag was appointed to by the
United States Department of Health and Human Services
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...
to serve as a member of the Health Information Technology Policy Committee. He was also recognized by the
American College of Physicians
The American College of Physicians (ACP) is a national organization of internists, who specialize in the diagnosis, treatment, and care of adults.Sokanu "What is an Internist?" Retrieved October 20, 2014 With 161,000 members, ACP is the largest ...
with their James D. Bruce Memorial Award for Distinguished Contributions in Preventive Medicine, and by the Kidney Foundation of Maryland.
After serving as Dean for 11 years, Klag stepped down from his role in 2016 to return to research and teaching. Upon stepping down, he was expected to take a one year
sabbatical before joining the school's departments of Epidemiology and Health Policy and Management.
In 2019, Klag was appointed to Juniata College's Board of Trustees for that academic year and then joined Doctor Evidence LLC's Medical Strategy Advisory Board of Directors. On April 17, 2019, Klag was installed as the inaugural holder of the Second Century Distinguished Professorship, which would become the Michael J. Klag and Lucy A. Meoni Distinguished Professorship upon his retirement. The donors wished to recognize Meoni's contributions as "Klag's crucial partner in the School’s success" and her own faculty legacy.
Personal life
Klag married Wendy Jane Schagen Klag in 1975.
Following her death in 2006, he established the Wendy Klag Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities in her honor.
He later remarried to Lucy A. Meoni, a JHU biostatistics faculty member.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klag, Michael J.
Living people
1952 births
American epidemiologists
American internists
Juniata College alumni
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health alumni