VCU Medical Center Physician Elected to Institute of Medicine

By Malorie Burkett

Joseph Ornato, M.D., professor and chair of Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Emergency Medicine, has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.

“The Institute of Medicine's deliberations and recommendations on health issues are pivotal to shaping national health care,” said Ornato. “It is truly an honor to be elected to this prestigious organization.”

Ornato is among 65 new members and five foreign associates, whose names were announced today in conjunction with the IOM’s 38th annual meeting.

With their election, members make a commitment to volunteer a significant amount of time as members of IOM committees, which engage in a broad range of studies on health policy issues.

"This honor is confirmation of Dr. Ornato's achievements in a long and distinguished career,” said Dr. Sheldon Retchin, VCU vice president for Health Sciences. "He has been a pioneer in resuscitation after cardiac arrest, and has made lasting contributions that have saved countless lives through the years."

Ornato specializes in emergency medical services, resuscitation and emergency cardiac care. Among his many achievements, he chaired the steering committee for the NIH Public Access Defibrillation trial which showed that laypersons using automated external defibrillators in public places like airports and sporting events can double the number of lives saved from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

He also is co-chair of the NIH's $50M Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium, a network of 10 U.S. and Canadian sites that are performing large, randomized clinical trials testing promising drugs and devices that may save more lives from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and major traumatic injury.

He received his medical degree from Boston University, trained in internal medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and went on to a cardiology fellowship at Cornell University.

The IOM was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to honor outstanding achievement in the health sciences and to serve as a national resource for independent analysis and recommendations on human health issues.