ROCHESTER, Minnesota — Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, who led the National Institutes of Health through most of the George W. Bush administration, has been appointed to the trustee board of Mayo Clinic.
Zerhouni, a world-renown radiologist, attended his first Mayo trustee meeting on May 8, the Rochester, Minn., hospital said.
“We are very pleased to have Dr. Zerhouni with us,” said Jim Barksdale, chairman of the Mayo board, in a written release. “He brings a wealth of experience and expertise that will be of great value as we move forward.”
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Zerhouni shook up the nation’s top medical agency when he barred scientists from consulting for drug makers, according to the New York Times.
He left the NIH in October 2008 after pushing scientists to focus more on patient care than on basic research, and forcing the agency’s independent institutes to cooperate on common projects, the Times said.
“I am honored to be a trustee at Mayo Clinic because I share Mayo’s well-known missions of excellence in clinical care, teaching and translation of biomedical research into outstanding patient care,” Zerhouni said in the Mayo release.
Zerhouni encouraged cooperation among the agency’s 27 institutes and centers to develop an integrated research program for obesity, and supported the reduction of health care disparities and development of the Neuroscience Blueprint, Mayo said in its release.
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And that, with a stagnant budget that curtailed research and demoralized scientists nationwide, according to the Times.
A native of Algeria, Zerhouni came to the United States more than 30 years ago with $369 in his pocket, the Times said. He did his residency in diagnostic radiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of Algiers in 1975.
Zerhouni became a multimillionaire after inventing several devices as a radiologist at Johns Hopkins, the Times said. He served on the Johns Hopkins faculty until going to Eastern Virginia Medical School in 1981. Zerhouni returned to Johns Hopkins in 1985 where he rose to be chairman of radiology, vice dean for research and executive vice dean, according to Mayo.
Pres. George W. Bush nominated Zerhouni as top doctor at the National Institutes of Health in 2002. He has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine since 2000.
