Professor Harvey Fineberg

Prof Fineberg is President of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences in the US. He served as Provost of Harvard University from 1997 to 2001, and was Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health for thirteen years.

As president of IOM, Prof Fineberg advises the government on issues such as vaccine safety, health care delivery and quality, nutrition standards, and cancer prevention and management. He also serves on the governing board that oversees the National Research Council, which is the operating arm of the National Academies. He has devoted most of his academic career to the fields of health policy and medical decision-making. His wide-ranging research interests encompass HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, the fields of risk management and decision-making, the evaluation of diagnostic tests and vaccines, the ethical and social implications of new medical technologies, and medical education.

Prof Fineberg has served on an array of government panels as well as the boards of numerous health and education organizations. He helped found and served as president of the Society for Medical Decision Making and also served as consultant to the World Health Organization. He also served as a member of the Public Health Council of Massachusetts from 1976 to 1979, as chairman of the Health Care Technology Study Section of the National Center for Health Services Research from 1982 to 1985, and as president of the Association of Schools of Public Health from 1995 to 1996.