PITTSBURGH – UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh today announced the appointment of Anne B. Newman, M.D., M.P.H., a world-renowned clinical researcher, epidemiologist and geriatrician, as the clinical director of the Aging Institute of UPMC and Pitt. In this role, she will lead efforts to translate research into clinical practice and policy.

 

Newman holds the Katherine M. Detre Endowed Chair of Population Health Sciences and chairs Pitt’s Department of Epidemiology. She has served as the director of the Center for Aging and Population Health at the Pitt Graduate School of Public Health since 2006. She also has been a member of the Division of Geriatric Medicine in the Department of Medicine since her fellowship in 1985 and is the co-director of the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center in the Division of Geriatric Medicine.   

 

“Dr. Newman is an outstanding physician and scientist. She will work closely with the institute’s director to develop the clinical platforms needed to translate basic science discoveries into population health and patient care. Our ultimate goal is to prevent late-life disability and extend health span — essentially a long life free of disease and disability,” said Steve Shapiro, M.D., chief medical and scientific officer at UPMC.

 

The Aging Institute brings together the expertise of researchers, scholars and clinicians who identify and implement innovative therapies for older adults and who support western Pennsylvania’s population with resources for seniors and their caregivers.

 

“Dr. Newman’s new role with the Aging Institute opens possibilities that lie ahead with our collaboration,” said Toren Finkel, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Aging Institute. “With her exceptional knowledge and expertise in understanding what happens biologically as we age and how to maintain function and good health into old age, she is unquestionably the perfect person to lead the Aging Institute’s clinical efforts and interventions.”

 

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Dr. Finkel and colleagues in the Aging Institute and to continue to collaborate with so many outstanding researchers in aging across the university. We have a unique and supportive environment at Pitt where almost every school has faculty members who are dedicated to improving the aging condition and who are working together to make our community the best place in the world to grow old,” said Newman.

 

As principal investigator of several major studies in Pittsburgh, Newman has conducted research that involved thousands of older adults for up to 30 years, making important observations on the causes and consequences of functional decline. In addition, she has conducted clinical trials testing lifestyle and medications to improve health span. 

 

Most recently, she has identified that the predictors of healthy aging include genetic and metabolomic signatures. She has published more than 700 research manuscripts in the top journals in her field and has been recognized by Reuters as one of the most highly cited scientists in the world since 2015. Newman is a member of the Association of American Physicians and the American Epidemiology Society. She is a frequent advisor to the National Institute on Aging, serving on the National Advisory Council on Aging and several review panels, workshops and monitoring boards.

 

Newman received her undergraduate degree in biology, her master’s degree in public health and her medical degree all from the University of Pittsburgh. She completed a residency in internal medicine at Presbyterian Hospital, now UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, and fellowship in geriatric medicine at the Benedum Geriatric Center. She was appointed as professor in 2006 and assumed the chairmanship of the Department of Epidemiology at Pitt Public Health in 2010.