Hiatt, Howard H.

Howard H. Hiatt (1925-), M.D., 1948, Harvard Medical School, joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School in 1955, was the first Herrman L. Blumgart Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Physician-in-Chief at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1963 to 1972, and Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health from 1972 to 1984. From 1988 to 1990, he was the Head of the Center for Policy and Education, Harvard AIDS Institute. Hiatt specialized in oncology and internal medicine, molecular biology, and biochemistry. He was also known for his public speeches and essays on the human consequences of nuclear war. During his tenure as Dean, the Harvard School of Public Health introduced teaching and research focused on molecular and cell biology, initiated programs in health policy and management, and biostatistics. Hiatt also integrated Harvard School of Public Health’s teaching and research programs with those in other Harvard University faculties, in an attempt to encourage cross-disciplinary research to bring together medicine and social science in the curriculum.

Howard Haym Hiatt was born in Patchogue, New York in 1925. He enrolled in Harvard College in 1944, and after two years, entered Harvard Medical School as part of an accelerated program to supply doctors to the armed services. He received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1948, and, no longer having to serve in the army, was able to pursue postdoctoral training directly at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital, New York Hospital, and Cornell Medical College, followed by a faculty appointment as Assistant in Medicine at the University of Chicago Hospital from 1952 to 1953. After working as an Investigator for the National Institutes of Health from 1953 to 1955, Hiatt accepted an appointment as an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School in 1955.

Hiatt's early research focused on the application of molecular biology to medical problems, particularly cancer. He was a member of the team at the Pasteur Institute, Paris, that first identified and described messenger RNA, and he was among the first to demonstrate messenger RNA in mammalian cells. In 1963, he accepted the Herrman L. Blumgart Professor of Medicine position at Harvard Medical School. In 1972, while working as Physician-In-Chief at Beth Israel Hospital, he was appointed Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. While Dean, Hiatt made the Harvard School of Public Health a leader in the biological and decision sciences, health policy and management, and introduced molecular and cell biology into its research and teaching. In 1983, Hiatt was instrumental in starting the Takemi Program in International Health, which aims to advance knowledge about international health and to contribute to institutional development and improvement of national policy.

During the course of his career, Hiatt authored numerous research articles on diverse topics such as disease prevention, delivery of health care and services, and the health and human consequences of nuclear war. His articles have appeared in Journal of Molecular Biology, Journal of Biological Chemistry, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of Clinical Investigation, and the Journal of the American Medical Association . His book, Medical Lifeboat: Will There Be Room For You in the Health Care System? (1989) confronted and offered solutions to major problems in the American health care system. He is also the co-author, with Paul C. Weiler, of A Measure of Malpractice: Medical Injury, Malpractice Litigation, and Patient Compensation, which presents the findings of the Harvard Medical Practice Study, a comprehensive investigation of the performance of the medical malpractice system.

Hiatt married Doris Bieringer (died 2007), a librarian who co-founded a reference publication for high school libraries, in 1948 and had three children: Frederick (born 1955), Deborah, and Johnathan.

From the guide to the Howard H. Hiatt papers, 1940-2001 (inclusive), 1975-2001 (bulk)., (Center for the History of Medicine. Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine.)