Kristine Yaffe Elected to National Academy of Medicine

Kristine Yaffe, MD, professor of psychiatry, neurology and epidemiology, and Roy and Marie Scola Endowed Chair and vice chair in psychiatry at UC San Francisco, is among the 100 new members elected in 2019 to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine. 

Election to the NAM recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service in the medical sciences, health care and public health. 

"I am honored to join the National Academy of Medicine,” said Yaffe, a faculty member of the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI). “Now more than ever, I am determined to continue to develop scalable strategies for dementia risk reduction across diverse populations."

Yaffe is an international leader in the identification of dementia risk factors. She conducted landmark studies on the links between dementia and hormone therapy, physical activity, cardiovascular risk factors, sleep quality, PTSD, and traumatic brain injury. Her forward-thinking perspective on the relationship between modifiable risk factors and dementia—particularly recognizing the continuum of cognitive aging—has provided specific targets for dementia prevention and placed her at the cutting-edge of the field.

Yaffe has been identified as one of the most highly cited researchers in her field by the Web of Science and has received several awards for her distinguished scholarly work, including the Royer Award for Academic Excellence in Psychiatry, the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry Distinguished Scientist Award, the UCSF Faculty Research Awards in Clinical Science, and the 2017 Potamkin Award for dementia research. 

The National Academy of Medicine, established in 1970 as the Institute of Medicine, is an independent organization of eminent professionals from diverse fields including health and medicine; the natural, social, and behavioral sciences; and beyond. It serves alongside the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering as an adviser to the national and the international community.

Read more from the National Academy of Medicine and UCSF News.