The SAMSUNG CORPORATION, sponsor of Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, Korea, expressed its shared commitment to supporting high quality international medicine by endowing this chair. The Samsung Medical Center also donated telemedicine equipment to the Outpatient Center. Founded in 1938 by the late Byung-Chull Lee, Samsung began as an exporter of dried fish, fruits, and vegetables. In 1948, Samsung moved its offices to Seoul, Korea, and became the Samsung Corporation, a full-scale international trade company that is a leader in modern business practices. Samsung Electronics Company Ltd., a company that would help develop Korea into a worldwide competitor in electronics, was established in 1969. Today, the company continues to be a global leader in digital and Internet technology, electronics, and banking.
Samsung Professorship in Medicine
School of Medicine
Established in 1997 by the Samsung Corporation
Held by Gail L. Daumit
GAIL L. DAUMIT, MD, MHS, completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, earning a Bachelor of Science in Economics. She then completed her medical degree at Emory University School of Medicine as a Robert W. Woodruff Scholar. Following medical school, Dr. Daumit was a resident in Internal Medicine, Primary Care at Massachusetts General Hospital. She then came to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and was a fellow in General Internal Medicine. She joined the Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine faculty in 1999.
At Johns Hopkins, Dr. Daumit is a core faculty member and former Associate Director of the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research. She holds joint appointments in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Departments of Epidemiology, Health Policy and Management, and Mental Health. She is also faculty in the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity. Dr. Daumit is committed to enhancing the research environment and research career development for faculty and trainees, is Research Director of the Division of General Internal Medicine, and is a former member and Co-Chair of the Institutional Review Board Expedited Committee. Dr. Daumit also co-directs the Johns Hopkins Clinician Scientist Career Development Awards and the Doris Duke Early Clinician Investigator Award programs and leads the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research K to R Transition Program. Dr. Daumit was awarded the Department of Medicine David M. Levine Excellence in Mentoring Award. She is also a recent graduate of the inaugural cohort of the Mary Elizabeth Garrett Executive Leadership for Women Faculty Program
Dr. Daumit has dedicated her research career to improving physical health and decreasing premature mortality in persons with serious mental illness. She has developed a creative and highly impactful research program using methods spanning descriptive epidemiology, health services research, clinical trials and implementation science to address the overall health of this population with a high burden of cardiovascular disease and other medical conditions. Dr. Daumit has obtained continuous NIH funding for this work since 2000 including 11 investigator-initiated grants. She led the interdisciplinary team for the ACHIEVE trial, the first long-term clinical trial to demonstrate a behavioral weight loss intervention was successful in persons with serious mental illness; ACHIEVE was awarded the Society for Clinical Trials 2013 Trial of the Year. Dr. Daumit is currently directing two clinical trials, a comprehensive smoking cessation, weight management and physical activity intervention in adults with serious mental illness, and a healthy lifestyle weight management intervention for youth with mental illness. With her transdisciplinary team and support from a NIMH P50, she recently launched the Johns Hopkins ALACRITY Center for Health and Longevity in Mental Illness. The Johns Hopkins ALACRITY Center focuses on improving cardiovascular health in persons with serious mental illness by developing and testing innovative implementation strategies for scaling up effective interventions to address cardiovascular risk factors in this high risk population.
In addition to her own research, Dr. Daumit has served in national and international leadership roles. She was standing study section chair for NIMH’s Mental Health Services Review Committee. She also participated in the World Health Organization’s Guideline Development Group for Guidelines on Identification and Management of Physical Health Conditions and Risk Factors in People with Severe Mental Disorders. Dr. Daumit is a member and former chair of the Society for General Internal Medicine’s Research Committee.
Dr. Daumit grew up in Montgomery County, Maryland where she now lives with her husband Ron Minsk. They have three children, Miriam, Shira and Oren. She is extremely honored to receive the Samsung Professorship and thanks her mentors, colleagues, family and friends for all of their support.