The American Medical Association (AMA) has announced the hiring of Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, M.D., Ph.D., M.A.S., as the next editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Dr. Bibbins-Domingo is the Lee Goldman, M.D., Endowed Professor of Medicine and chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California San Francisco [UCSF] School of Medicine. She was also the inaugural vice dean for population health and health equity at the UCSF School of Medicine and co-founded the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Dr. Bibbins-Domingo will begin her tenure on July 1, 2022.
Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, M.D., Ph.D.
The AMA is "tremendously pleased and fortunate to welcome Dr. Bibbins-Domingo as the new editor-in-chief ... As a physician, scholar, and leader, she has focused on health equity, on cardiovascular disease prevention -- top priorities for the AMA -- and more recently on COVID-19," said James L. Madara, MD, CEO and executive vice president of the AMA, in a press release.
“This is an extraordinary time for science, medicine and public health—one where the possibilities for accelerating advancements in human health seem limitless, while deep challenges to achieving optimal health for all seem intractable,” said Dr. Bibbins-Domingo in the release. “Against this backdrop, a trusted voice for science, medicine, and public health has never been more important. JAMA represent[s] an unparalleled platform for the very best science to reach the broadest audience and for advancing the discussions, debates and new ideas that will continue to shape health nationally and globally. I couldn’t be more excited to join as editor-in-chief.”
“Dr. Bibbins-Domingo is a first-rate physician-scientist with broad and deep credentials spanning biochemistry, clinical science, population science and academic research,” said Otis Brawley, M.D., who served as chair of the search committee, which included 18 leaders from across medicine and academia from throughout the country. “Her expertise in the areas of health policy and equity, along with her leadership acumen, gravitas, and experience guiding complex enterprises uniquely qualifies her to be JAMA’s next editor-in-chief.”
Dr. Bibbins-Domingo was a member of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force from 2010-2017 and led the Task Force as the vice chair and chair from 2014-2017. In this leadership role, she led the Task Force’s editorial process of systematic review of evidence, authorship of clinical guidelines, and multi-channel publication of evidence and guidelines to physicians and patients.
The announcement of Bibbins-Domingo's new position concludes a "thorough, thoughtful, and deliberate" search involving an 18-member committee of experts in academia and medicine, said Rodrigo Sierra, chief communications officer of the AMA, during the press conference.
Bibbins-Domingo becomes the first person of color and the second woman to hold the post of JAMA editor-in-chief. JAMA's last editor-in-chief, Howard Bauchner, MD, resigned from his post in June 2021, following the release of a broadly criticized podcast on structural racism in medicine earlier that year. The podcast has since been deleted.
Asked whether a lack of diversity in medicine and science was to blame for the airing of the controversial podcast, Bibbins-Domingo noted that "the entire scientific and medical enterprise has been plagued by the inability to acknowledge these important forces that shape the health of our patients. And we know that some of this blindness to seeing these forces has to do with who's in the room making the decisions, who's in the room conducting scientific studies, who's in the room shaping policy, [and] who's in the room deciding what gets published."
Bibbins-Domingo said that researchers today are living in "a golden age" of science and medicine, yet the public's growing mistrust of these institutions -- as demonstrated during the pandemic -- threatens progress, as do health disparities.
"It's a time when the great advances in science do not always translate into improvements in health for our patients, or improvements in health of the society at large. And, in fact, deep inequities in health observed across communities are actually widening," she said.
Against this backdrop of mistrust, JAMA has an opportunity to "not only help readers make sense of our changing world, but to communicate science and scientific discovery in a way that actually advances clinical practice, advances the health of all of our patients, and improves the health of the population nationally and globally," she continued.
Dr. Bibbins-Domingo began her career as a biochemist, having trained in the laboratory of the Nobelist Harold Varmus and currently serves as a general internist, cardiovascular disease epidemiologist, and a national leader in prevention and interventions to address health disparities. She is an NIH-funded researcher who uses observational studies, pragmatic trials, and simulation modeling to examine effective clinical, public health, and policy interventions aimed at prevention.
Dr. Bibbins-Domingo is an inducted member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Bibbins-Domingo earned her Doctor of Medicine Degree, Ph.D. in Biochemistry, and Masters in Clinical Research from UCSF. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University in Molecular Biology and the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.
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