AMA hires first person of color as JAMA editor-in-chief

Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a physician-scholar from the University of California, San Francisco, has been named the next editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association. She is the first person of color to lead the medical journal and only the second woman to serve as editor-in-chief, AMA Chief Communications Officer Rodrigo Sierra said during a press conference today.

Bibbins-Domingo will take the reins on July 1. The last permanent editor, Howard Bauchner, left the position following a controversy over a podcast and associated tweet that called into question the existence of systemic racism in the medical profession. Dr. Phil Fontanarosa has served as interim editor-in-chief since March 2021.

Bibbins-Domingo co-founded the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and is the Lee Goldman, M.D. Endowed Professor of Medicine and chair of the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at the UCSF School of Medicine.

“As a physician, scholar and leader, she has focused on health equity, on cardiovascular disease prevention—top priorities for the AMA—and more recently on COVID-19. I am confident Dr. Bibbins-Domingo—with her remarkable professional background ranging from basic science to an array of scholarly approaches to clinical studies—will effectively advance JAMA’s mission that accelerates clinical research into practice at this critical time in health care in the U.S. and in global public health,” AMA CEO and Executive Vice President Dr. James L. Madara said in a statement.

“This is an extraordinary time for science, medicine and public health—one where the possibilities for accelerating advancements in human health seem limitless, while deep challenges to achieving optimal health for all seem intractable,” Bibbins-Domingo said in the statement. “Against this backdrop, a trusted voice for science, medicine, and public health has never been more important. JAMA and the JAMA Network represent an unparalleled platform for the very best science to reach the broadest audience and for advancing the discussions, debates and new ideas that will continue to shape health nationally and globally."

Dr. Bibbins-Domingo was a member of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force from 2010-2017 and led the task force as the vice chair and chair from 2014-2017. She led the task force's editorial process of systematic review of evidence, authorship of clinical guidelines and multichannel publication of evidence and guidelines to physicians and patients, the statement said.

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Bauchner resigned his position in June 2021 following a JAMA podcast in February 2021 which came under intense criticism for suggesting that there was not really systemic racism in medicine. As interim editor-in-chief, Fontanarosa helped pen an editorial apologizing for the podcast and saying "an extensive evidence base strongly supports the presence of structural racism in medicine and its adverse influence on health."

The controversy came at a time in which the American Medical Association has been re-evaluating and recognizing past examples of racist actions.

Bibbins-Domingo said that naming and taking responsibility for issues such as historic structural racism is critical for the field of medicine.

"The entire scientific and medical enterprise has been plagued by the inability to acknowledge these important forces," she said in a virtual press conference today, suggesting that more diverse leadership can change that dynamic.

"Some of this blindness to seeing these forces has to do with who is in the room when the decisions are made."

This story first appeared in our sister publication, Crain's Chicago Business.