University at Buffalo (UB)
Leonard E. Egede, MD, has been honored as the 2024 recipent of the National Institute of Health’s Robert S. Gordon Jr. Award for Epidemiology and has also been elected to the Association of American Physicians.
Egede Honored With NIH Award for Epidemiology Work
Department of Medicine Chair Also Inducted Into Association of American Physicians in April
By Dirk Hoffman
Published July 12, 2024
Leonard E. Egede, MD, the Charles and Mary Bauer Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine, has been honored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with its 2024 Robert S. Gordon Jr. Award for Epidemiology.
The Gordon Lecture, established in 1995, is part of the NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series, whose goal is to keep NIH researchers abreast of the latest and most important research in the United States.
Egede delivered his award lecture, titled “Addressing Health Disparities in Diabetes: Intersection of Structural Racism, Social Determinants, and Racial/Ethnic Disparities,” May 15 in Washington, D.C.
Understanding Impacts of Health Inequalities
His talk focused on how upstream structural factors drive downstream social determinants of health and health outcomes in adults with diabetes.
Egede also discussed promising interventions to address social needs in adults with diabetes and novel policy-focused studies that have the potential to address upstream structural drivers of poor health outcomes.
“I’m deeply honored to be the recipient of the prestigious Robert S. Gordon Award for Epidemiology from the NIH,” Egede says. “The lecture was a great opportunity to showcase my 24-year journey of understanding, developing, and implementing interventions to reduce or eliminate inequalities in health care for U.S. adults with chronic conditions.”
Egede adds that he was excited that over 400 individuals signed in for the virtual presentation of his lecture, in addition to those who attended in person.
“Hopefully, I was able to inspire a new generation of health equity researchers.”
Nationally Known Health Disparities Researcher
As a nationally recognized health disparities researcher, Egede’s research focuses on developing and testing innovative interventions to reduce or eliminate health disparities related to race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geographic location for chronic medical and mental health conditions.
Egede is currently the principal investigator of five NIH R01 grants and has published over 450 manuscripts documenting how factors at the individual, provider, and system levels influence health outcomes.
His work has also examined the impact of structural racism, social determinants of health, and social risk on health outcomes; advanced research on effectiveness and safety of telehealth and telemedicine as a modality for delivering effective clinical care; and improved understanding of the role of behavioral economics on health and health outcomes for individuals with chronic disease.
His research is funded by the National Institute for Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Elected to Association of American Physicians
In April, Egede was also elected to the Association of American Physicians (AAP) at its induction ceremony in Chicago, Illinois.
The AAP, established in 1885, is an an honorific, elected society of America’s leading physician-scientists who exemplify the pinnacle of pioneering and enduring, impactful contributions to improve health.
To be eligible for nomination, one must be nominated by a member and seconded by an additional member. Election to the AAP is an honor extended to physicians with outstanding credentials in basic or translational biomedical research and is limited to 70 people per year.
Began Duties at Jacobs School on July 1
Egede assumed his roles at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB on July 1. He came to UB from the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he was chief of the Division of Internal Medicine and director of the school’s Center for Advancing Population Science.
Egede grew up in the central part of Nigeria and earned his medical degree from the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria, and his master’s degree from the Medical University of South Carolina.
His postgraduate training and fellowship appointments include an internship and residency in internal medicine at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, where he also served as chief resident. He completed a Health Services Research Fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina.
Egede is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, and board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine.