Aram Chobanian, MD, to receive dual honors at Mass. Medical Society’s annual meeting

Aram V. Chobanian, MD, President Emeritus, Boston University and Dean Emeritus of the School of Medicine, is receiving dual honors at this year’s annual meeting of the Massachusetts Medical Society: he will be honored with a Committee Chair Service Award for his longtime and exceptional leadership and he’s been selected to deliver the Society’s prestigious Shattuck Lecture. The award will be presented May 7 at the Society’s Annual Awards Luncheon, part of the organization’s annual meeting.  The Shattuck Lecture will be delivered Saturday, May 9.

Dr. Chobanian will be honored for his service as Chair of the Committee on Publications, which oversees the New England Journal of Medicine and its related Journal Watch publications that cover 13 medical specialties. He became a member of the Committee in 1999 and has served as chair since 2004.  In recognizing Dr. Chobanian for his committee leadership, the Society said “He brought to this role his experience as dean of the Boston University School of Medicine, president of Boston University, author of over 250 scientific articles, recipient of numerous awards, and service on many boards, committees and societies. It is not surprising that Dr. Chobanian’s wisdom and experience as a clinician, researcher, educator and administrator have served the Committee on Publications well.”

The Shattuck Lecture, presented by the Massachusetts Medical Society and New England Journal of Medicine, dates to 1890 and is named for George C. Shattuck, the 12th president of the Medical Society, who endowed the Society with funds for an educational presentation at the organization’s annual meeting. It is part of the educational events at the meeting.

For his lecture, Dr. Chobanian will discuss the remarkable advances made in the treatment of hypertension which have provided the capability to lower blood pressure in almost every hypertensive patient. Although these accomplishments represent one of the major medical successes in the past half century, paradoxically, the prevalence of hypertension is actually increasing in the U.S. and worldwide, as is the number of patients with uncontrolled hypertension. Dr. Chobanian will provide perspective to this paradox by discussing the factors responsible for the rising prevalence of hypertension and the poor control rates.

Hypertension is one of Dr. Chobanian’s areas of expertise. He chaired the Fourth and Seventh Joint National Committees on the Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of Hypertension and is the recipient of the First Lifetime Achievement Award in Hypertension from the American Heart Association.

In 2008, Dr. Chobanian was honored by the Society with its 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award, given to a member of the Society who has made a lasting contribution to the practice of medicine over a lifetime and who has made significant contributions to the goals of the Society. He also serves as a member of the Committee on Administration and Management.

A graduate of Brown University and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Chobanian has a long and distinguished medical career dedicated to research on hypertension and vascular disease, patient care, and student education. He founded the Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute at the Boston University School of Medicine in 1973 and played a leading role in the creation of Boston Medical Center, resulting from the merger of Boston City Hospital and BU Medical Center Hospital. From 1975-95, he also served as Director of the Hypertension Specialized Center of Research funded by the National Institutes of Health. He has authored more than 275 scientific articles and two books, and is the John I. Sandson Distinguished Professor of Health Science and Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at the BU School of Medicine.