John B. McKinlay, Ph.D.

NERI's Senior Vice President and Chief Scientist, John McKinlay, is an internationally prominent epidemiologist with interests and experience in public health, epidemiologic field studies, clinical decision-making and health policy. He was for several decades a distinguished academic and administrator (at Boston University), holding simultaneous Professorships in Medicine, Biostatistics and Epidemiology and Sociology and directing BU's Center for Health and Advanced Policy Studies and its Gerontology Institute. He has been associated with of the Division of Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard Medical School) for 25 years.

Dr. McKinlay is the recipient of many awards and honors including an NIH MERIT Award, an American Psychological Association award for "Distinguished and Pioneering Contributions to Research on Women's Health," and the American Sociological Association's Leo G. Reeder Award for "Distinguished Contributions to Medical Sociology." He is the author, co-author, or editor of over 250 professional papers and 17 books. Several of his papers have been designated "citation classics".

Dr. McKinlay's career-lifelong commitment to social epidemiology began in his native New Zealand with studies of heart disease among native Maoris and the health consequences of migration by Polynesian Tokelau Islanders. While at Aberdeen University, Scotland, during the late 60's, he was involved in research on perinatal mortality and studied the use of health care by very low-income families. Since 1973, Dr. McKinlay has collaborated on studies of menopause -- culminating in the highly regarded Massachusetts Women's Health Study. His own Massachusetts Male Aging Study (a longitudinal investigation of over 1700 men) continues to make pioneering contributions in such fields as endocrinology, urology, cardiovascular disease, geriatrics and behavioral medicine. Dr. McKinlay is presently leading NIH funded research on the epidemiology of erectile dysfunction (impotence). With support from the NIH he is establishing a population epidemiologic laboratory in the Boston inner-city area involving some 6000 individuals randomly sampled and followed over time (called the Boston Area Community Health Survey, or “BACH Survey”). This study is designed to look at a range of urologic symptoms (i.e., symptoms related to pain of the bladder, urination, etc.) in men and women of diverse race and ethnicity. With colleagues at the Boston Medical Center, he has started one of the first large epidemiology studies of osteoporosis in a racial and ethnically diverse population of aging men (called BACH BONE). He is also conducting a study on non-medical factors and how they influence clinical decision-making in both the US and the UK. This last area is producing highly relevant results for the rapidly emerging managed care environment in the U.S.