Helen M. Ranney, MD
The AAP Council is delighted to announce the creation of a new award to be named in honor of the late Dr. Helen M. Ranney. This award was conceived to coincide with the 100 year anniversary of the Kober Medal in 2025. This award will be given annually to a new AAP inductee who embodies the spirit of Dr. Ranney. Dr. Ranney was a pioneer in academic medicine who made groundbreaking advances in biomedical research, patient care, education, mentorship, and also broke barriers to help diversify leadership in academic medicine. The AAP Council will choose the awardee that best represents these qualities and present it at the annual meeting where the awardee will give a scientific presentation.
Dr. Ranney was recruited to UC San Diego in 1973 as the first woman to chair a Department of Medicine, a position she held until 1990. She was widely honored for her research in the field of blood disorders, which included the first description of the abnormal blood cell structure and genetic factors linked to sickle cell anemia. Dr. Ranney’s particular interests were hemoglobin and hemoglobinopathies and she mentored several individuals who became giants in the field and AAP members, Dr. Ron Nagel, Dr. Robert Bookchin, and Dr. Franklin Bunn. With Dr. Bunn and Dr. Bernie Forget she wrote the landmark book Bunn HF, Forget BG and Ranney HM. Human Hemoglobins. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1977. She was awarded the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Medical Achievement Award in 1972 for this work. Her accomplishments as a physician-scientist paralleled her success as a leader. Her career milestones included serving as the first woman president of the Association of American Physicians, and the first woman honored as a Distinguished Physician of the Veterans Administration. In addition to being elected to the National Academy of Sciences, she served as President of the American Society of Hematology, a Master of the American College of Physicians, and a member of the Institute of Medicine (now National Academy of Medicine). She was a renowned mentor and built a diverse faculty at the UCSD School of Medicine, as well as promoting the best and brightest physician-scientists in national societies regardless of race or gender. She believed in and embodied excellence.
This award has the support of her family and is endorsed by her niece, Ms. Alesia Martinelli of Katonah, New York. It is also enthusiastically supported by Dr. Ken Kaushansky and Dr. David Brenner. Dr. Kaushansky was the Chair of the Department of Medicine at UCSD at the time of Dr. Ranney’s death in 2010 and Dr. Brenner was the Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences at UCSD.
The award will carry a cash award of $5,000 and an honorary medal. The goal is to raise an endowment to support this yearly award. We hope that you will join us in establishing this endowment to recognize extraordinary accomplishments from our new awardees in the spirit of one of our greatest members. Join us by donating today!
