The Stanford physician was honored for his leading edge research on insulin resistance.

Gerald M. Reaven, MD, has been honored with the prestigious Ellen Browning Scripps Medal Award for his leading edge research on insulin resistance. The medical research award, named for the philanthropist who helped found Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, is given to an individual who has made significant advancements in the medical field.

1. What is Dr. Reaven’s area of expertise?

Dr. Reaven has made enormous contributions in the area of insulin resistance. For over 40 years, the Stanford University School of Medicine professor and his research team have been dedicated to understanding the link between insulin resistance and the development of a number of diseases. Beginning in the early 1960s, Dr. Reaven’s research group developed techniques for measuring insulin resistance. The group used this measurement method to clarify the link between an individual’s lifestyle behavior (physical activity level and eating habits) and their risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and heart disease as well as other diseases. Dr. Reaven’s research has enabled us to understand how weight gain and a sedentary lifestyle can play a larger role than age in the increased risk of these diseases.

2. What is Dr. Reaven’s background?

Dr. Reaven received his medical degree from the University of Chicago and was a research fellow at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Following a 2-year stint in the US Army Medical Corps, he served his internal medicine residency at the University of Michigan before returning to Stanford, where he has been on the medical staff for 44 years. In that time, Dr. Reaven has been head of Stanford’s division of endocrinology and metabolic diseases, director of the general clinical research center and head of the division of gerontology. He is currently professor of medicine (Active Emeritus) at Stanford.

3. What other contributions to research has Dr. Reaven made?

Dr. Reaven has authored or coauthored more than 500 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has been awarded the highest research awards from the American Diabetes Association, the British Diabetes Association, the European Association for the Study of Diabetes and the Veterans Administration.

4. What other positions has Dr. Reaven held?

He has served on the editorial boards of Endocrinology, the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, the American Journal of Physiology, the Journal of Gerontology and the Journal of Internal Medicine.

5. Describe the Ellen Browning Scripps Medal Award.

This year marks the silver anniversary of the Ellen Browning Scripps Medal Award, with the first medical research award given in 1979. Since then physicians from across the country have been honored each year for their significant advancements in the medical field. Scripps Health Foundation promotes the philanthropic support of Scripps Health. Funds raised through various events have allowed Scripps physicians to provide cutting edge health care services and internationally renowned research for the advancement of human health. Philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps founded Scripps Health in 1924.