Joanne Katz

Last updated

Joanne Katz
Born
Alma mater
Occupations
  • Educator
  • biostatistician
  • epidemiologist
Scientific career
Institutions
Thesis Village and household clustering of morbidity and mortality in developing countries (1992)

Joanne Katz is an epidemiologist, biostatistician, and Professor of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She holds joint appointments in the Departments of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Ophthalmology (School of Medicine). Her expertise is in maternal, neonatal, and child health. She has contributed to the design, conduct and analysis of data from large community based intervention trials on nutritional and other interventions in Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal and other countries.

Contents

Early life and education

Joanne Katz was born in Cape Town, South Africa. [1] Her father Robert Katz was a builder of large apartment buildings across Cape Town and holder of several patents in Africa and Europe on innovative designs and construction methods using poured concrete technologies. Her mother, Rachel (Ray) Katz, a lawyer, was one of the first women admitted to the South African bar. Katz was the second of four children. The family immigrated to the United States in 1978 just after Katz graduated with a Bachelor of Science in economics and statistics from the University of Cape Town. [1] [2]

She received a Master of Science in mathematical statistics from Princeton University in 1982 and immediately joined the faculty of the newly established Dana Center in the Johns Hopkins Department of Ophthalmology as a research associate. While working full time, Dr Katz earned a Doctor of Science in international health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 1993. [1] [2] Her dissertation was titled Village and household clustering of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. [3]

Career

From 1982 to 1994, Katz served on the faculty of the Dana Center for Preventive Ophthalmology in the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins. [1] With an MS degree, she was promoted to assistant professor in 1986 and to associate professor in 1991. In 1994, she moved with several colleagues into the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of International Health. [1] There, she was promoted to professor in 1997.

Research

Katz has contributed to the research and the diagnosis of eye disease, specifically to underserved children and elderly in Baltimore. [1]

Her research has also sought to find low cost interventions to reduce micronutrient deficiencies, infectious diseases, and poor reproductive outcomes among pregnant women, adolescents, and young children in Africa and Asia. [1] Starting in 1982, as a statistician, she worked with Alfred Sommer to analyze data to uncover a link between vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and an increased risk for child mortality. [4]

From 1983 to 1992, Katz worked with Keith West and James Tielch to run a number of large scale, community-based, randomized trials to identify a link between VAD and child mortality. Their work showed they could reduce child mortality in at-risk populations by 23 to 34%. [5] They conducted a number of randomized trials in Indonesia and Nepal in the 1980s. [5] [6] By 1992, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the United Nations's Food and Agriculture Organization, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child declared the control of VAD as a common goal. [5]

Katz worked with Dr. Alfred Sommer, Center director to understand the causes of xerophthalmia, respiratory and diarrheal infections in several countries in South Asia.

Awards

Select publications

Related Research Articles

<i>Lancet</i> surveys of Iraq War casualties

The Lancet, one of the oldest scientific medical journals in the world, published two peer-reviewed studies on the effect of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation on the Iraqi mortality rate. The first was published in 2004; the second in 2006. The studies estimate the number of excess deaths caused by the occupation, both direct and indirect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health</span> American private university

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is the public health graduate school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. As the second independent, degree-granting institution for research in epidemiology and training in public health, and the largest public health training facility in the United States, the school is ranked first in public health in the U.S. News & World Report rankings and has held that ranking since 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vitamin A deficiency</span> Disease resulting from low Vitamin A concentrations in the body

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) or hypovitaminosis A is a lack of vitamin A in blood and tissues. It is common in poorer countries, especially among children and women of reproductive age, but is rarely seen in more developed countries. Nyctalopia is one of the first signs of VAD, as the vitamin has a major role in phototransduction; but it is also the first symptom that is reversed when vitamin A is consumed again. Xerophthalmia, keratomalacia, and complete blindness can follow if the deficiency is more severe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Sommer</span>

Alfred (Al) Sommer is a prominent American ophthalmologist and epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research on vitamin A in the 1970s and 1980s revealed that dosing even mildly vitamin A deficient children with an inexpensive, large dose vitamin A capsule twice a year reduces child mortality by as much as 34 percent. The World Bank and the Copenhagen Consensus list vitamin A supplementation as one of the most cost-effective health interventions in the world.

International Community for the Relief of Suffering and Starvation (ICROSS) is an international non-governmental organisation that provides health and development services for pastoral communities in East Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Micronutrient deficiency</span> Medical condition

Micronutrient deficiency is defined as the sustained insufficient supply of vitamins and minerals needed for growth and development, as well as to maintain optimal health. Since some of these compounds are considered essentials, micronutrient deficiencies are often the result of an inadequate intake. However, it can also be associated to poor intestinal absorption, presence of certain chronic illnesses and elevated requirements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katherine O'Brien</span> Canadian-born pediatric physician (born 1963)

Katherine "Kate" L. O'Brien is a Canadian American pediatric infectious disease physician, epidemiologist, and vaccinologist who specializes in the areas of pneumococcal epidemiology, pneumococcal vaccine trials and impact studies, and surveillance for pneumococcal disease. She is also known as an expert in infectious diseases in American Indian populations. O’Brien is currently the Director of the World Health Organization's Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals.

Frederick Wabwire-Mangen is a Ugandan physician, public health specialist and medical researcher. Currently he is Professor of Epidemiology and Head of Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at Makerere University School of Public Health. Wabwire-Mangen also serves as the Chairman of Council of Kampala International University and a founding member of Accordia Global Health Foundation’s Academic Alliance

David M. Serwadda is a Ugandan physician, medical researcher, academic, public health specialist and medical administrator. Currently he is a Professor of Public Health at Makerere University School of Public Health, one of the schools of Makerere University College of Health Sciences, a semi-autonomous constituent college of Makerere University, the oldest university in Uganda. Serwadda is also a founding member of Accordia Global Health Foundation's Academic Alliance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Webb (nutritionist)</span> British nutritionist

Patrick Webb is the Alexander McFarlane Professor of Nutrition at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. He was Dean for Academic Affairs from 2005 to 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdullah Baqui</span>

Abdullah H. Baqui is a public health scientist who demonstrated the effectiveness of simple but effective strategies to reduce preventable newborn deaths.

Marie Diener-West is the Helen Abbey and Margaret Merrell Professor of Biostatistics and the chair of the Master of Public Health Program at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Diener-West is an editor for the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Group and a member of the American Public Health Association, American Statistical Association, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, and the Society for Clinical Studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Costello</span> British paediatrician

Anthony Costello is a British paediatrician. Until 2015 Costello was Professor of International Child Health and Director of the Institute for Global Health at the University College London. Costello is most notable for his work on improving survival among mothers and their newborn infants in poor populations of developing countries. From 2015 to 2018 he was director of maternal, child and adolescent health at the World Health Organization in Geneva.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otto Herbert Wolff</span> German born medical scientist

Otto Herbert Wolff, was a German born medical scientist, paediatrician and was the Nuffield Professor of Child Health at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Wolff was notable for being one of the first paediatricians in Britain to set up a clinic for obese children. Later research into plasma lipids with Harold Salt pioneered the techniques of lipoprotein electrophoresis. He later conducted research into the role of lipid disturbance in childhood as a precursor of coronary artery disease and his recognition in 1960 of the rare condition of abetalipoproteinaemia. Wolff was also co-discoverer of the Edwards syndrome in abnormal chromosomes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child development in India</span>

Child development in India is the Indian experience of biological, psychological, and emotional changes which children experience as they grow into adults. Child development has a significant influence on personal health and, at a national level, the health of people in India.

Helen Y. Chu is an American immunologist who is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington. Her research considers maternal immunization, with a focus on influenza and respiratory syncytial virus. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chu was the first physician to recognise community transmission of the coronavirus disease within the United States.

Mathuram Santosham is an Indian American physician who is Professor and Chair at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Santosham is best known for his work on oral rehydration therapy and childhood vaccines, with a focus on supporting people from indigenous communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Igor Rudan</span>

Igor Rudan is a Croatian-British scientist, writer, and science communicator. He leads research projects in global health and genetics, writes books, and creates documentary series.

Chaniece Wallace, a black woman and physician, died at 30 years of age from complications of pregnancy two days after giving birth. Her death is seen as preventable and is viewed in the context of high rates of maternal mortality in the United States, particularly among the African American population. It is cited as an example in medical and scholarly publications to call for improved health outcomes in the black U.S. population. Wallace died despite several factors seen as protective: she was "highly educated, employed as a health care practitioner, had access to health care, and had a supportive family."

Sheila Kay West is an American ophthalmologist who is the El-Maghraby Professor of Preventive Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute. She is also the vice-chair for Research.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Joanne Katz, ScD". Maryland State Archives. 2016. Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 "Joanne Katz, ScD". Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  3. Sommer, Alfred; West, Keith P. (1996). Vitamin A Deficiency. Oxford University Press. p. 352.
  4. Prabhune, Meenakshi (April 6, 2020). "Alfred Sommer: Discovering a Two-Cent Remedy that Saves Children's Lives". Lasker Foundation. Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 "The Story of Vitamin A". Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 2003. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  6. Howard, Brandon (May 2010). "Nepal and the Department of International Health A Model Relationship for Global Health Research". Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  7. "Joanne Katz, ScD". Maryland Women's Heritage Center. January 2, 2018. Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  8. "Joanne Katz receives NICHD funding to investigate risk factors for adverse birth outcomes in rural Nepal". Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. September 17, 2018. Retrieved May 24, 2021.