The discipline of epidemiology: engaging in the full breadth of population health science

This address was delivered by Harold I. Feldman, MD, MSCE, at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Epidemiology in New Orleans, Louisiana, on September 26, 2017. Dr. Feldman is George S. Pepper Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine, and Chair, Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is recognized nationally and internationally for his expertise in kidney disease epidemiology. Dr. Feldman pioneered the integration of epidemiology and renal medicine with his first studies of dialyzer reuse and hemodialysis vascular access morbidity. He is internationally renowned in nephrology and clinical epidemiology and an architect of one of the largest and most successful epidemiological research programs in chronic kidney disease. For over 15 years, he has led NIH's Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort Study, placing him at the helm of the “Framingham Study of Renal Disease”. It has elucidated the chronic kidney disease-specific relationships of mineral dysmetabolism and cardiovascular complications; dietary sodium and heart failure; novel vascular stiffness metrics and renal disease progression; cardiovascular biomarkers and heart failure; and cognitive decline and renal dysfunction, among others. He has also led the nation's largest trials targeting hemodialysis vascular access morbidity, discovered the benefits of transplantation before dialysis dependence, elucidated racial disparities and the role of genetics in kidney failure, and shaped our understanding of the toxicity from unregulated reuse of medical devices. He is the past President of the American College of Epidemiology and directs one of the nation's largest clinical epidemiology and biostatistics programs. Dr. Feldman has an MD from Boston University and an MSCE from the University of Pennsylvania. He is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the American Epidemiological Society.