The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) is awarding honorary degrees this year to six individuals who’ve made an impact through their work or philanthropic efforts in the fields of dentistry, law, medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. The recipients will be featured on The Elm during Commencement week May 17-21.
Honorary Doctor of Sciences
Ralph Snyderman, MD
Chancellor Emeritus, James B. Duke Professor of Medicine, and Executive Director of the Center for Personalized Health Care, Duke University
Ralph Snyderman has played a leading role in the conception and development of personalized health care, an evolving model of national health care delivery, and has been widely recognized for his contributions to the development of more rational, effective, and compassionate health care.
Snyderman was among the first to envision and articulate the need to move the focus of health care from the treatment of “disease events” to personalized, proactive, and patient-centered care. The Association of American Medical Colleges has referred to him as the “father of personalized medicine.”
“I have known Dr. Snyderman for 30 years,” said University of Maryland School of Medicine Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, who is also the executive vice president for medical affairs at UMB. “When we created our Scientific Advisory Council to advise me on the School of Medicine’s research mission, Ralph was the first chair I chose for that committee. He served in this role for six years, and his influence and wise counsel continue to inspire and propel us forward.”
Snyderman served as chancellor for health affairs and dean of the Duke University School of Medicine from 1989 to 2004, leading its growth into an internationally recognized leader of academic medicine. He oversaw the development of the Duke University Health System, one of the most successful integrated academic health care systems in the country, and served as its first president and CEO.
He has received countless awards for his efforts to improve health care, most recently the inaugural Clinical Research Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017 from the WIRB Copernicus Group/International Biomedical Research Organization and the Precision Medicine World Congress Pioneer Award in 2016. His bibliography contains nearly 400 manuscripts and numerous books, including “A Chancellor’s Tale: Transforming Academic Medicine.”
Snyderman also has played a prominent role in the leadership of important national organizations such as the Association of American Physicians, the National Academy of Medicine, and the Association of American Medical Colleges. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., he earned his bachelor’s degree from Washington College in Chestertown, Md., in 1961, and his medical degree from State University of New York-Downstate Medical Center in 1965.