History of the Department
FROM LEFT: Dr. Charles Burnette (inaugural chair and nephrologist), Dr. Thomas Barnett (pulmonary medicine), Dr. Ernest Craige (cardiology), Dr. William Cromatie (infectious disease), Dr. Thomas Farmer (neurology), Dr. Jeffress Palmer (hematology), Dr. John Sessions (gastroenterology)
Department Chairs
- Dr. Charles Burnett, 1951-1964
- Dr. Louis G. Welt, 1965-1972
- Dr. Robert Ney, 1972-1980
- Dr. David Ontjes, 1981-1989
- Dr. Fred Sparling, 1989-2000
- Dr. Marshall S. Runge, 2000-2014
- Dr. Ronald Falk, 2015-present
Dr. Cromartie in MacNider Hall
1951 – 1964
By 1964, Dr. Burnette’s last year as chair, the Department had grown to 44 faculty and 461 students and house staff who had obtained eight training grants totaling $327,846 and 33 research grants totaling $579,672. Pressing needs and recommendations for the future were to expand space, recruit faculty in endocrinology and genetics, and increase salaries to remain competitive.
Dr. W.B. Blythe and Dr. Margaret Newton
1964 – Today
Since then, the Department has continued to grow, now comprising more than 465 faculty and 200+ trainees who work across 12 Divisions and 11 Centers. The Department has educated more than 9,000 medical students and trained approximately 3,500 residents and 1,500 fellows, including leaders across academia, industry, and clinical practice. Faculty members have made seminal discoveries that have shaped our understanding of various diseases, including in acute rheumatic fever, hemophilia, HIV/AIDS, ANCA vasculitis, and cystic fibrosis, to name a few. The Department has also cared for several million North Carolinians, starting during the polio epidemic and extending through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Paul Godley
- Dr. Janet Fisher (first female Professor of Medicine)
- Dr. Paul Godley (first African American Professor of Medicine)
- Dr. Ada Adimora (first female African American Professor of Medicine)
In 2020, Dr. Keisha Gibson was appointed inaugural Vice Chair of Diversity and Inclusion.
Education
The Department also has a long history of educating health professionals across the state, including through the Area Health and Education Center (AHEC), which the Department helped found, providing education and services focused on primary care in rural communities and those with less access to resources to recruit, train, and retain the workforce needed to create a healthy North Carolina.
Research
Early faculty members set the foundation for highly productive research programs. Over time, this evolved markedly, with a steady growth of new faculty and the physical expansion of resources to support scientific activities. The Department’s research continues with basic, translational, clinical, health services, and epidemiological research that impacts the delivery of care and reinforces the great joy and responsibility of helping advance the field of medicine.
Some key contributions have included:
Cardiology: pioneering research in echocardiography, as well as development of guidelines for assessing cardiovascular risk and treating hypertension, cholesterol abnormalities, and acute coronary syndromes.
Endocrinology: defining new approaches to treating diabetes, elucidating the role of growth hormone and IGF-1 in controlling insulin sensitivity, and understanding how mechanical forces affect the skeleton.
Gastroenterology: elucidating the role of the microbiome in intestinal inflammation, outlining clinical characteristics and treatment approaches to functional gastrointestinal disorders, and clarifying the epidemiology of gastrointestinal diseases, as well as the basic mechanisms and clinical therapeutics for viral hepatitis.
General Internal Medicine: notable contributions to clinical epidemiology, evidence-based medicine, patient reported outcome measurement, healthcare disparities, and social determinants of health.
Hematology: seminal research that defined red blood cell physiology, as well as coagulation in health and disease.
Infectious Diseases: early research that defined the role of streptococcal cell wall fragments in acute rheumatic fever, as well as innumerable contributions to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of HIV/AIDS.
Nephrology: seminal work that helped define renal physiology, fluid and electrolyte disorders, autoimmune kidney disease, and ANCA vasculitis.
Oncology: international leadership in cancer clinical trials, translational science, and health services research, with development of major cancer drugs and patient-centered care models at UNC.
Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine: among various accomplishments, the Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine has been an international leader in cystic fibrosis and primary ciliary dyskinesia.
Rheumatology, Allergy & Immunology: most notably understanding the pathogenesis, epidemiology, and clinical outcomes of osteoarthritis.
