The Journal of the American Medical Association and JAMA Network on Monday named Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo its new editor-in-chief, effective July 1.

Phil Fontanarosa, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology at UCSF and inaugural associate dean for population health and health equity at the UCSF School of Medicine, succeeds Phil Fontanarosa, Ph.D., who has served as editor-in-chief since March 2021.

Fontanarosa succeeds former editor-in-chief Dr. Howard Bauchner, who stepped down in June.

Here are five things to know about Bibbins-Domingo and her new role:

1. Bauchner resigned following the controversy. JAMA hosts a podcast called “Structural Racism for Doctors: What Is It?” The show, which aired in February 2021, featured then-JAMA Associate Editor Dr. Edward Livingston with Mitchell Katz, MD, JAMA Internal Medicine Editor and CEO of NYC Health+ Hospitals. Livingston, who has since resigned, called structural racism an “unfortunate term” and supported “taking racism out of the conversation.” A now-deleted tweet promoting the podcast said: “No doctor is racist, so how can there be structural racism in medicine?” Hener’s leadership conducted an independent investigation, built a more diverse leadership team, hired an associate editor focused on anti-racism and health equity, and held a town hall meeting on the topic.
2. She is the first person of color to be named a top editor.In a news conference announcing her appointment, Bibbins-Domingo said she appreciated several important changes JAMA results controversy. The changes, she said, “start with leadership,” involving large parts of the organization and ensuring diversity in the way editors, reviewers and authors are recruited and shape content. “Unfortunately, like many large institutions in the United States, medicine is often slow to accept racism As part of its own history, it fails to recognize that we are all affected by these forces deeply rooted in American history. The entire scientific and medical enterprise has been plagued by a failure to acknowledge these important forces affecting patient health. ”
3. From 2010 to 2017, she was a member of the US Preventive Services Task Force and led its editorial process. She joined the task force when it was “engaged in controversy” after advising that all women aged 40 to 49 should not have routine mammograms. Bibbins-Domingo said in a news conference that the task force learned that science has an audience that goes far beyond doctors. “It’s patients, it’s patient advocacy groups, it’s policy makers, it’s specialists, it’s other healthcare professionals. Working groups… put a communication lens front and center in the process, and stakeholder engagement.”
4. Bibbins-Domingo’s career initially focused on biochemistry. She received her BA in Molecular Biology from Princeton University.
5. Her research focuses on Coronavirus disease Equity in vaccine distribution, excess mortality due to pandemics, integration of social care into clinical interventions, racial disparities in heart failure among young adults, and the association between subsidized food budget exhaustion and hospitalization.