Childhood Obesity Expert Is Named Chief of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital
Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital has appointed Joan Han, MD, a world expert in childhood obesity, as Chief of the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes in the Jack and Lucy Clark Department of Pediatrics. She will also be a Professor of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Prior to joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Han served as Director of the Pediatric Obesity Program at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. She is board certified in general pediatrics, pediatric endocrinology, and obesity medicine and has published broadly in these fields.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Han to Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital, where her expertise in pediatric endocrinology, most notably obesity medicine, will be of great value to the pediatric community we serve,” says Lisa Satlin, MD, Chair, Jack and Lucy Clark Department of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
“I am delighted and honored to be joining the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. While Memphis, Tennessee, and New York City may seem like very different regions, each with its own special charms, both cities are similarly grappling with the epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes. To address this, I have been in planning meetings across multiple divisions at Mount Sinai to create a comprehensive program targeting these health concerns from both directions—prevention as well as treatment,” says Dr. Han.
Dr. Han’s areas of clinical focus are type 2 diabetes and other disorders associated with obesity, and endocrine and metabolic complications associated with brain tumors and brain trauma. Her primary research efforts focus on the neuroendocrine regulation of energy balance and cognitive functioning as well as the genetic, environmental, and behavioral determinants of metabolic health in the general population and in patients with rare genetic disorders associated with
obesity and type 2 diabetes, such as leptin/MC4R pathway defects and Alström, Bardet-Biedl, Prader-Willi, and WAGR/11p deletion syndromes.
Dr. Han earned her medical degree from Harvard University. She completed her residency in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center, and pursued further advanced training in a clinical research fellowship at Nemours Children’s Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, and a pediatric endocrinology fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
She is a Pediatric Associate Editor for the International Journal of Obesity. She is a member of the Society for Pediatric Research, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, and the Obesity Society, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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